Local Colliers Office Launching Property Management Unit

PORTLAND-The local office of Colliers International is launching a property management division with the help of Sonna Durdel, who made millions selling her local property management firm Forum Properties to Insignia in 1997 and now is working for Colliers in a short-term advisory role. Not by coincidence, the new division will be led by two former Durdel employees, Sue Iggulden and Lisa Johnston, a veteran management team that is coming over from CB Richard Ellis and has worked together since 1992.Iggulden started last week as GM of Colliers Real Estate Management Services unit, or REMS. At CBRE, Iggulden was director of asset services, overseeing a diversified portfolio of 4.2 million sf. Johnston, who starts next week, will be a senior managing member of REMS. At CBRE, she was a senior property manager in charge of 825,000 sf of office, flex, industrial and retail space. “I feel like I’m ready for a new challenge,” Iggulden tells GlobeSt.com, explaining her reasoning for making the move. “Colliers is providing something that’s exciting, an opportunity to build something from the ground up.”By forming a property management unit, Colliers is hoping to be more of a full-service provider to clients for which it sells and leases buildings. By luring Iggulden and Johnston, Colliers is hoping to ramp up its operation quickly. Neither Durdel nor Iggulden would speculate on what percentage of the owners/asset managers of the 4.2 million sf she managed for CBRE would follow her to Colliers, but it could be substantial. Local sources tell GlobeSt.com that, aside from national corporate relationships, the bond between a property manager and an owner or asset manager is typically tighter than the bond between the owner/asset manager and the company employing the person providing the property management services. In addition, property management assignments typically change hands along with a change in ownership, and it is expected that hundreds of thousands of sf will change hands this year in the local market. One of Colliers first assignments could be 1201 Lloyd, which Iggulden managed while at CBRE and which recently changed hands. Finally, it is expected that the new division will help Colliers gain more leasing assignments, as management and leasing assignments are often handed to the same firm if that firm provides both services. If that happens, it would balance out Colliers local leasing revenue stream, which heretofore has been weighted toward tenant representation, in large part due to the lack of a property management business.Once the new operation is up and running smoothly, Iggulden and Johnston will remain but Durdel will likely be one vacation and then onto her next assignment. “I’m here to design and implement a strategic plan and implement the first few steps of that plan,” she tells GlobeSt.com.Durdel says her MO as of late is to work only three or four months out of the year and travel or otherwise be on vacation the rest of the time. Having already spent four months under contract with Colliers, Durdel sounds ready to relax for a while before entertaining offers for her next assignment.