Feted annually for their production, Mike Holzgang and Gordon King will now enjoy the exclusive assistance of two junior brokers and an administrative assistant. The duo didn't even have their own assistant at C&W, despite averaging about 850,000 sf of lease transactions annually.
"This gives us a platform from which to service our clients at a higher level than ever before," Holzgang tells GlobeSt.com. "A lot of companies are cutting back instead of gearing up; this opportunity presented itself and makes a lot of sense."
"This is a client service business and, as it grows, you need different people to handle different aspects of it," adds King. "On some of our smaller suburban listings, it's not a good idea for me to drive three hours to do a showing; instead, I now can have one of our younger brokers show the space while I stay on the phone about bigger deals, and then make time later on to help close that smaller deal."
John Kohnstamm, managing director Colliers' Portland office, could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. Terry Shanley, managing director for Cushman & Wakefield's Portland office, said his company's culture is changing and with that comes fallout.
"I think (Colliers') set up probably works better for Mike and Gordon than ours now does," Shanley tells GlobeSt.com. "Mike and Gordon are old school, lone wolves dragging meat into camp, and at C&W we are working more collaboratively among brokers than we ever have. They chose administrative support over professional support, and Colliers got themselves two very talented brokers."
Shanley admits it will be a little unusual looking across the table at guys who spent a combined 35 years with C&W, "but I've got every belief we will be doing just that and doing just fine." It may take a while, though, as listings tend to stay with the broker, not the brokerage. "All that stuff will flesh itself out," says Shanley. "We will work with Mike and Gordon to make sure we serve the client's interest, regardless."
Earlier this year, C&W lost another top producer in Scott Langley, who left the firm to become president of Ashforth Pacific, an owner-manager-developer of commercial real estate that was looking for someone to help grow its West Coast presence through acquisition.
Langley took with him broker Doug Pugh, but Gordon and King won't be doing the same. Instead, in addition to the administrative assistant, King and Holzgang have chosen as their understudies Brad Christensen of William S. Wright and Assoc. and Derek Glos, a recent graduate of Willamette University.
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