Scannell Properties Celebrates a Thirty-Year Milestone as One of America’s Leading Privately-Held Commercial Real Estate and Investment Companies
Trust, a stellar reputation, deep market knowledge, vast experience and sound judgment has been at the heart of Scannell Properties, one of the country’s largest privately held commercial real estate and investment companies. Since its inception in 1990 in Indianapolis, Scannell’s portfolio has steadily expanded to include over 300 development projects totaling 63 million SF in 44 states and 3 Canadian provinces. In July, the company celebrates a thirty-year milestone that makes them one of America’s commercial real estate legends.
Robert “Bob” Scannell is at the helm of Scannell Properties as President and Founder. From the company’s inception, Bob’s vision for the company was to focus on build to suit leased projects anywhere in the US with clients who would have a need for such projects on a repeat basis. His goal was to structure the company in such a way that a superior building could be delivered no matter where a project was to be located. That vision has resulted in the company now consistently completing new development of more than $1 billion annually and anticipating 2.5 – 3 billion in 2020. Scannell attributes their extraordinary success to many factors, but Bob Scannell says one of the most important factors is “we value our client relationships and we do exactly what we say we are going to do and make sure our clients are pleased with the process.”
The thirty-year entrepreneurial journey was not without challenges, however. Prior to forming Scannell Properties, Bob was one of the partners of Duke Realty Investments prior to its restructuring as a REIT. He left Duke amidst conflict and found himself without work, but with a dream that fueled his passion for developing commercial real estate properties as a privately held company. He enlisted help with Doug Snyder, a colleague at Duke who also had exited the company, and together they embarked on a path to “do our own thing” in Indianapolis, primarily focusing on build to suits that would eventually evolve into four deals in other markets. With Snyder’s help as COO and co-founder, the duo built Scannell from the ground up as a privately held and self-funded company and credit their success to client-focused relationships and fiscal responsibility and their ability to hire a team of in-house experts who continue to continue to work at Scannell, many for over 10 years and longer.
The future looks even more promising in the decades to come, as Scannell expanded their industrial development operations into Europe in 2018 with an office in London focusing on the core markets of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.
“To me this milestone has two meanings, one of which is gratitude that I am respected as an industry leader, but more important is the fact that we are confident that as a company we are leaving a legacy in our industry and will continue to grow and be successful. We created a company with great people, and I am proud of where we are today. We’re going strong and we’ve got a great team in place who love to do deals and we love to have fun doing so.”
When he is not busy finding new and exciting commercial real estate opportunities, Bob Scannell focuses his time working on philanthropic efforts with his fiancé, Cynthia Murdock. The couple founded the RJS Foundation – a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization currently serving the community in Indiana.
RJS Foundation relieves the burdens of financial hardship for hardworking families, single mothers and special needs children who struggle with access to necessities of life, including shelter, education, and medical care. Two of their major initiatives are: The Transitional Living Program and the Home Ownership Program. For more information, visit www.rjsfoundation.org.