BRIAN FULTON
Owner | Broker
Brian steers the ship for Top Hat Commercial Real Estate as the Owner and Broker of the company. Brian brings nearly 20 years of financial and self-storage experience to Top Hat Commercial Real Estate. His main roles include assisting his clients in the areas of site feasibility, property development, valuation, cash flow modeling, research and sales.
To learn more about our owner, read his full bio below…
RYAN CLEMONS
Director of Acquisitions & Development
Ryan brings extensive finance and real estate development expertise to his role as Director of Acquisitions & Development. His track record includes acquisitions of $175 million in land for 11 Master Planned Communities as VP of Finance at Metro Development Group, the analysis and closing of $412 million in self-storage transactions at Cushman & Wakefield, and managing substantial land acquisition budgets at Beazer Homes.
HAVEN CHAVOUS
Director of Investment Analytics
Haven is responsible for everything pertaining to the financial realm at Top Hat Commercial Real Estate. He brings over 15 years of experience in Quant Analytics, assisting businesses of all sizes across a myriad of business types with financial modeling, analytics, and statistical analysis. Haven develops, builds, and maintains investment models, performs statistical analysis, and executes any/all ad-hoc analysis.
LAUREN EGAN
Director of Marketing
Lauren brings over 10 years of experience in marketing, graphic design, and commercial real estate. As the Director of Marketing for Top Hat Commercial Real Estate, she is at the forefront of all marketing efforts. She utilizes her talents to develop the overall brand of the company, solve creative problems, build company relationships, and strategically benefit the business. With a sharp eye for design and unmatched creative spirit, Lauren is well suited to design anything the company needs.
ALIVIAH BARNETT
Senior Associate
Aliviah holds a pivotal position within the team as a Senior Associate at Top Hat Commercial Real Estate. Utilizing her robust real estate background as a prior Realtor, she seamlessly combines her foundational expertise in real estate with a unique blend of experience and adaptability to help deliver exceptional results.
About The Owner
BRIAN FULTON
Brian brings nearly 20 years of financial and self-storage experience to Top Hat Commercial Real Estate. His main roles include assisting his clients in the areas of site feasibility, property development, valuation, cash flow modeling, research, and sales.
Currently, Brian supports the acquisition and development of Lockhart Management Group’s portfolio of self-storage assets operating under the Lockhart Storage Center brand. In 2020, he transitioned from the Mele Storage Group of Cushman and Wakefield to focus on his largest client, LMG, and their portfolio of assets, as well as assisting a small number of other private clients.
Brian joined The Mele Group in 2014, providing his assistance and expertise on over 200 transactions with a sales volume exceeding $1.5 billion. He underwrote in excess of $6 billion in self-storage assets and examined the feasibility of over 300 development projects.
As a Tampa native, Brian received his bachelor’s in finance at the University of South Florida. He began his career as a Financial Consultant, advising construction companies on executive compensation packages, asset management, and tax reduction strategies. With this experience, Brian then served as a Portfolio Manager for a Florida-based Registered Investment Advisory firm, performing financial modeling, forecasting, valuation, and securities research. Brian took this knowledge base with him to a nationally recognized consulting firm, where he designed deferred compensation plans for numerous fortune 500 companies. Brian has successfully completed the Level I exam for the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and was studying for the Level II exam prior to switching his focus to property sales at The Mele Group.
Outside of the office, Brian enjoys spending time with his daughter Tessa. In his free time, you can find him relaxing by the pool with family, fishing, flying, and occasionally swinging a golf club.
Why Top Hat?
The name Top Hat is near and dear to Brian’s heart. In 2019, Brian’s wife became extremely ill and after several months of fighting a bout with pneumonia they discovered the true culprit. She was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, a disease that is becoming much more prevalent in young healthy female nonsmokers.
Throughout all the initial procedures Jodi’s positivity remained high and so did her love for horses. While Jodi had ridden and shown American Saddlebred horses for years, she had never owned one, and Brian worked for months to find the perfect horse for her. After several months, he found Topper, show name LA Sir Top Hat, out of West Virginia and Brian brought him down to Tampa to surprise his wife and family. While Jodi continued her fight against cancer, Topper brought them an immense amount of joy and truly became part of the family. Whenever Jodi was feeling well enough you could find her at the stables.
Unfortunately, Jodi lost her fight against cancer in 2022. Brian wishes to maintain and grow her legacy at the stables and has set up a scholarship fund to help young kids follow their dreams into the arena.