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Conversion Properties, Inc. was founded in 2006 to serve the real estate needs of the Southeast Region through brokerage, development and consulting. Leveraging the founder's vast experience in Downtown Knoxville, Conversion began with a concentration in brokerage and redevelopment and quickly expanded to the Knoxville suburbs and beyond.

Joe E. Petre, president and founder, has seventeen years of commercial real estate experience in the southeast region, much of it focused on downtown and urban properties. A 1986 graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Business, he started his real estate career with Wood Properties, Inc. providing full-service brokerage including landlord and tenant representation and site selection and disposal. Joe was also instrumental in the formation of Woodbilt Homes, Inc. In 2000, he joined Lawler-Wood, LLC where he leased and managed urban high-rise investment property, represented facility management clients and was involved in higher education consulting and development projects. He continued brokerage, assuming the role of the firm’s principal broker.

Joe’s community involvements include service on the board for the Central Business Improvement District (past Chair), the Downtown Knoxville Design Guidelines Committee, Knox Area Chamber Partnership Board and Executive Committee, Knoxville Habitat for Humanity (Past President), Helen Ross McNabb Foundation Board and the Baptist Collegiate Ministries Facilities Foundation. He is a graduate of the Leadership Knoxville Class of 2005, has served on the Mayor’s Downtown Knoxville Advisory Task Force, Friends of Literacy and as a founding board member of 211 “Just Ask”