Some partnerships begin with a carefully prepared business plan, a conference room full of advisers, and months of negotiations.
The partnership between Dave Cheatham and Darren Pitts began with a plane ticket.
In 1996, Pitts was a young broker working in CBRE’s Albuquerque office and looking for an experienced mentor who could help him build a career in retail real estate. Cheatham was already one of the company’s leading retail professionals, helping national brands navigate the rapidly growing Phoenix market.
The two met at an ICSC event in Las Vegas, where Cheatham was being recognized as one of CBRE’s top performers. Pitts saw an opportunity to learn from someone operating at the highest level of the business, so he asked for an introduction.
Cheatham agreed to help, but there was a catch.
If Pitts was serious, he would need to fly from Albuquerque to Phoenix every Thursday and Friday throughout the summer.
The challenge was meant to test his commitment. Pitts didn’t wait to respond. He boarded a plane and was sitting in Cheatham’s office at 7:30AM the next day.
That decision launched a professional relationship that has now lasted 30 years.
From Mentorship to Partnership
At first, the relationship was clearly defined. Cheatham was the established industry veteran, and Pitts was the ambitious young broker ready to absorb everything he could.
That dynamic did not remain one-sided for long.
Under Cheatham’s mentorship, Pitts quickly developed into an elite retail broker, becoming one of the youngest senior vice presidents in CBRE’s history. Pitts brought energy, persistence, market strategy, and a talent for finding opportunities others overlooked. Cheatham brought deep experience, relationship management, negotiation skills, and an ability to build teams around individual strengths.
Their skills were different, but their goals were remarkably similar.
Cheatham has described their roles using a sports analogy. Pitts is the offensive player, constantly searching for opportunities, opening doors, and pushing the ball down the field. Cheatham is the defensive player, focused on relationships, negotiations, client service, and making sure every detail is handled correctly.
Together, they found balance.
“I was drawn to Dave’s experience, and Dave was drawn to my ambition,” Pitts once said.
That balance helped transform a mentorship into a true partnership, one built not around identical personalities but around complementary abilities and a shared commitment to the client.
Building Something of Their Own
Cheatham and Pitts began working together at CBRE before being recruited by Roger Staubach to help lead the western region of Staubach Retail. Their careers continued to grow, along with their reputation for handling complex expansion programs, major retail rollouts, big-box transactions, and high-profile market entries.
In 2005, they co-founded the company that would become Velocity Retail Group.
The timing was not exactly comfortable.
As the real estate market headed toward one of the most challenging economic periods in modern history, Cheatham and Pitts chose to build rather than retreat. While many companies were reducing operations, the partners stayed focused, expanded their market share, and used the downturn to strengthen their business.
“The recession made us stronger and made our partnership much stronger,” Cheatham later said.
That resilience became part of Velocity Retail Group’s identity. The company grew into a full-service retail real estate firm providing tenant representation, landlord representation, project leasing, investment advisory, market intelligence, property management, development services, and strategic consulting.
Today, the company’s roster includes more than two dozen brokerage, research, marketing, property management, accounting, and operations professionals. Its website summarizes the philosophy behind that growth with a simple statement: “You don’t build a business, you build people, then people build the business.”
That philosophy is pure Dave and Darren.
Helping Shape Arizona’s Retail Landscape
Over three decades, the pair has worked with many of the most recognizable names in retail, restaurants, entertainment, fitness, furniture, and consumer services.
Current client assignments listed by Velocity Retail Group include Buc-ee’s, ALDI, Hobby Lobby, Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic, Life Time, Whataburger, Popeyes, American Furniture Warehouse, Ashley HomeStore, JCPenney, Academy Sports, Bojangles, Valvoline, Athleta, Sun Auto, and several Darden restaurant concepts, including Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, and Eddie V’s.
Their work has helped introduce new brands to Arizona, expand established concepts into growing communities, and reposition properties as consumer patterns and trade areas have evolved.
One particularly visible example is Buc-ee’s planned entrance into Arizona. Cheatham and Pitts, along with Bonnie Arlia, spent several years analyzing the market and identifying the right location for the Texas-based travel center brand. The team ultimately helped secure more than 22 acres near Interstate 10 and Bullard Avenue in Goodyear for the company’s first Arizona location.
Other assignments demonstrate the range of their work. Pitts represented American Furniture Warehouse in acquiring approximately 20 acres near Loop 303 in Surprise, while Cheatham’s relationship with Gap Inc. concepts stretches back to the arrival of Arizona’s first Old Navy store in the 1990s.
The projects may vary in size and complexity, but the approach remains consistent: understand the client’s goals, study the market, find the opportunity, and execute.
Adding Development to the Equation
As their clients expanded, Cheatham and Pitts recognized that brokerage alone could not always solve every real estate challenge. In some markets, the ideal building simply did not exist. In others, brands needed a partner capable of carrying a project from site selection through construction and opening.
Accelerated Development Services was created to help fill that gap.
A subsidiary of Velocity Retail Group, Accelerated Development Services provides build-to-suit and buy-to-suit solutions for expanding retailers. Its leadership team has experience developing everything from single-tenant locations to major shopping centers, giving clients another way to enter markets where quality real estate may be limited.
The development platform has worked on projects across multiple states, including a 64,000-square-foot roasting facility for Dutch Bros in Melissa, Texas. It has also participated in award-winning retail projects such as The Crossing at Sahuarita, a grocery-anchored development featuring Sprouts Farmers Market, TJ Maxx, PetSmart, Starbucks, and Chipotle.
Accelerated Development Services reflects the same philosophy that has guided the partnership from the beginning. When a client faces an obstacle, find a solution rather than accepting the limitation.
Recognition Without Losing Perspective
Cheatham and Pitts have earned plenty of recognition along the way.
In 2024, they were named NAIOP Arizona’s Retail Broker Team of the Year for the fifth time, an honor recognizing industry performance, production, leadership, and mentorship.
Awards, however, have never been the full measure of their success.
The partnership has endured market crashes, company transitions, major negotiations, business growth, and countless changes in the retail industry. It has also endured because it extends far beyond transactions.
Their families have shared weddings, births, funerals, graduations, vacations, church activities, volunteer projects, and life’s many unexpected turns. They have celebrated victories together and stood beside one another during difficult moments.
That kind of friendship cannot be measured in square footage or transaction volume.
“Business partnerships lasting three decades are rare,” Cheatham recently wrote. “Friendships that last that long are a blessing. Having both in the same person is something I’m deeply grateful for.”
The Next Chapter
Thirty years after that first flight from Albuquerque to Phoenix, Dave Cheatham and Darren Pitts are still building.
They are building client strategies. They are building new developments. They are building a company capable of serving retailers, property owners, investors, and communities across the Southwest and beyond.
Most importantly, they are building people.
The mentorship that started their partnership has become part of Velocity Retail Group’s culture, as both men continue to coach younger professionals and share the lessons they have learned.
The retail landscape will keep changing. Markets will rise and fall. New brands will emerge, old buildings will find new purposes, and the definition of a great retail location will continue to evolve.
Through it all, the foundation Dave and Darren created remains remarkably steady: mutual trust, complementary strengths, relentless work, and a belief that taking care of people is still the best way to build a business.
Not bad for a partnership that began with one very early flight.
