Forty Under 40: Aaron Nicholson

Aaron Nicholson initially thought he would sell agricultural chemicals for a living after earning an agricultural business degree from the University of Arkansas in 2009. He did that for more than a year before transitioning to real estate.

“You work hard like eight months out of the year, and then I was bored four months out of the year,” he joked.

He earned his real estate license, thinking he’d sell farmland during the slow time. However, after researching the real estate industry, he jumped into commercial real estate full time.

He joined Cushman & Wakefield/Sage Partners 12 years ago as an associate at its Little Rock office. He has been a principal since 2018. He specializes in retail, industrial, commercial land and investment sales brokerage.

He’s overseen more than 2 million square feet in sales and leasing transactions, including multimillion dollar transactions for PotlatchDeltic, U.S. Bank, Bentonville Commerce Office Park, and Goodwill of Arkansas, which he represents in selecting the sites for the leasing and land development of its retail stores statewide.

Career highlights include mentoring colleagues and those entering the field through the company’s brokerage internship program and the University of Arkansas Real Estate Club. He noted that the internship program was recently retooled to include an analyst program.

“I’m proud of the team we’ve built,” he said. “There’s been a lot of time, effort and thought that’s gone into it. I’m proud of the mentoring that we’ve done and that compounding effect that we think it’s going to have in the future.”

The Searcy native moved from Little Rock to Northwest Arkansas about three years ago to help restructure the company’s brokerage team.

He supports Tommy’s Nite Out, Pack Shack and Razorback Foundation.