William H. Mizener

1936 - 2023

William H. Mizener

January 29, 1936 - May 4, 2023

Bill Mizener, retired commercial real estate executive and developer of Tulsa Properties died May 4,, in Fort Myers, Florida, following a brief illness.

Bill was first and foremost an amazing mentor and motivator whom touched not only the team he led but also many of his competitive peer group. His life long career is exemplified by his can-do thoughts to the Tulsa World following 9/11 "I think the reality is, if we just all go back to work and do what we know needs to be done, in mid-2002 we're going to be real proud of ourselves. We pull together pretty good. You can feel it. You can look out on the streets."

In the early 1970s, Bill was the General Manager/Vice President of Belger Cartage in both Wichita, Kansas and Tulsa, Oklahoma leading a large crew of the skilled steel workers and heavy crane operators responsible for relocating manufacturing businesses from the rust belt to the Midwest. In the late 1970s, he took his industrial plant skill set and started the transition into the commercial-industrial real estate brokerage business and trained under David Rich, SIOR for two years before founding Tulsa Properties, Inc. in 1978. Throughout the 1980s, he built Tulsa Properties from a three-man industrial real estate brokerage firm with a part-time administrative assistant into the leading full service commercial-industrial brokerage business in northeast Oklahoma along with the founding of Tulsa Properties Management in 1986. In the 1980s, he was developer of all the MAXIM service centers/flex space for First Interstate's various pension fund clients and was the catalyst for introducing the service center concept to the Tulsa marketplace. Throughout the 90s, the firm strategically expanded into one of the premier organizations in the state of Oklahoma and acquired the CBRE operations in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City in 2000. In 2007, the firm acquired brokerage and property management divisions of Trammel Crow in Oklahoma from CBRE. When CBRE acquired the CBRE/OK partnership in 2015, the firm had 39 commercial-industrial real estate brokers across all disciples, 126 employees and a property management portfolio of 18.6 million square feet.

Bill became a member of the Society of Industrial-Office Realtors in May, 1981 and made the promotion of career related education his everyday passion and directly influenced eleven current SIOR members to be active in the organization. He was a strategist and innovator in the realm of commercial real estate services and established the first database of available properties in the early 80s and implemented a contact management system for increased sales management. Bill's creative sales leadership strategies led to the implementation of psychological profile testing for enhanced sales staff hiring and facilitated extensive consultative sales training through the Integrity Selling program. His mentorship efforts were his passion and he derived great pleasure in the success of others, whether they worked directly with him or in the industry.

Giving of his time and personal commitment to the betterment of others, Bill supported Tulsa's Gateway Foundation-a group devoted to encouraging independence and providing opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to enable them to live and work in the community and improve their quality of life.

Bill was blessed to enjoy 87 years of life on this earth. In 1936, he was born to Howard and Addie Mizener in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2001, Bill met LuAnn Green in Tulsa where they were married in 2002. He is survived by his daughter, Melissa Walny; son-in-law, Gai; and two grandsons, Ari and Dani.

A celebration of life will be held in Tulsa on August 14. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Bill's favorite charity-Tulsa's Gateway Foundation.