Rex Thomas BIO

Rex Thomas is Vice President of Phoenix Commercial Properties, an industry-leading commercial real estate company in Raleigh North Carolina, representing landlords, tenants, buyers, and sellers in commercial transactions.

As a North Carolina native, Rex Thomas was instrumental in the development of Highwoods Properties’ position as the Triangle’s leader in office space. He was involved in taking Highwoods public in 1994 and formed Highwoods Forsyth Brokerage in 1995 to handle the company’s third-party services. Rex acquired the company in late 1996, changing the name to Thomas Commercial Inc. Following two successful mergers, the company became known as Grubb & Ellis|Thomas Linderman Graham and became one of the largest and most successful full-service commercial real estate firms in the Triangle market. In October 2012, the company sold to Avison Young, the fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm in North America.

In March 2015, Rex left Avison Young and created JRT Holdings to focus on tenant representation, investment sales, acquisitions, and real estate consulting. He has brokered several thousand leases and sales transactions over his 42-year career.

In April 2017, he took over as Broker in Charge of Phoenix Commercial Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, a real estate brokerage firm established by his late son-in-law John Larocca. Today, he works with John Powell who joined the firm in 2017 as Broker in Charge and President.

Rex serves on the Campbell University Board of Advisors; Board of Directors, Endowment and Executive Committee  for the Occoneechee Council, Boy Scouts of America. He also serves on the Board of Trustees at Highland United Methodist Church.

Rex was a founding director of Capital Bank serving on the corporate board and Real Estate committee from 1997 until 2009. He also chaired the committee that oversees local real estate market survey published quarterly by the Triangle Business Journal for over 20 years.