Nashville’s commercial real estate scoreboard is out, and it reads like a who’s who of the city’s power brokers. The Nashville Business Journal has released its annual ranking of the region’s largest commercial real estate firms by 2025 sales volume, as part of its Book of Lists franchise. This year’s entry, compiled from questionnaires that brokerages submitted themselves, profiles 26 companies across the Nashville region as transaction activity rebounded in pockets last year. For investors, tenants and local brokers, the ranking serves as a quick snapshot of who closed the biggest deals in a turbulent but still active market.
According to the Nashville Business Journal, the list was researched by Carol Smith and ranks Nashville-area commercial firms by 2025 sales volume within a nine-county area. The outlet also notes that the rankings are based on information supplied by firm representatives via questionnaires, and that only companies that responded appear on the list.
Market Momentum Behind the Numbers
Nashville’s investment tally picked up in 2025 after a slowdown, with industrial and retail trades doing most of the heavy lifting in the rebound. CoStar reported that investment volume hit roughly $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2025, the highest quarterly total in more than a year.
What the Book of Lists Measures
The Book of Lists counts closed sales volume rather than lease activity or listings, so firms that specialize in investment sales tend to rank higher. As the Nashville Business Journal makes clear, the list is a self-reported snapshot, not an independently audited accounting of every local deal.
Who Appears, and What It Means
Both global brokerages with local offices and regional specialists show up on NBJ’s list. National platforms often lead on total dollar volume, while local firms can outpace peers in specific niches. CBRE emphasizes its long-standing Nashville presence, and a year-end market report from Colliers documents improving absorption and a notable uptick in 2025 sales growth. Smaller, regionally focused firms also leverage NBJ placements in their marketing. For example, Matthews has highlighted a top-10 recognition in an earlier press release.
Why Local Readers Should Care
For local investors and tenants, the annual ranking is shorthand for which brokerages moved the most capital and which teams have the relationships to get deals done. Recent single-asset trades, such as Highwoods’ sale of Bridgestone Tower for $255 million, show institutional appetite for well-located, fully leased trophy assets even as other parts of the market remain selective. Because NBJ’s list relies on company-supplied questionnaires, readers should pair it with market reports and transaction trackers to get a fuller picture of who is truly capturing local dollar volume.
