GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Colliers Names Local Managing Director

PORTLAND-Thomas Lawwill, most recently vice president and director of sales and leasing for the locally based real estate company Norris & Stevens, will lead the Portland office of Colliers International as its new managing director. He starts on Monday. “I know a number of the people at Colliers and saw it as a very excellent growth opportunity,” Lawwill tells GlobeSt.com. “At Norris & Stevens, I had responsibility for the brokerage operation; at Colliers I will have bottom-line responsibility for the entire operation.”Lawwill takes the reigns from the first lady of Portland real estate, Sonna Durdel, who came to the firm last December to reset its strategic direction, launch a property management division and find its next managing director. Despite being a short-term contract, Durdel recently decided to stay on as a key member of the firm’s investment sales team and advisory board. Last week , John Kohnstamm, who voluntarily stepped down as Colliers local managing director last June in order to focus on investment sales and acquisitions, moved his license to locally based Capacity Commercial Group where he will continue to build his investment sales business. Concurrent with that, Sonna brought on her friend and business partner Pam Baker to head up Colliers investment sales division. Baker helped Durdel grow her Forum Properties real estate management company. Durdel made millions in 1997 when she sold the company to Insignia. Baker, who immediately prior to joining Colliers was doing charity work, has been parking her broker’s license at Signature Advisors, the company Durdel formed after the sale of Forum Properties. Prior to finalizing the investment sales team, Sonna recast the office’s marketing and research team and launched the firm’s new property management division. To launch the property management division, Sonna hired another pair of her former Forum team, Sue Iggulden and Lisa Johnston, a veteran management team that came over from CB Richard Ellis and has worked together since 1992. The new management division, REMS, has secured 1.2 million sf of property management business in its first 45 days. “We plan to continue building these new departments,” says Lawwill. “It’s anything but business as usual, which is what gets my juices flowing.”Norris & Stevens principals Bob Stutte and Brian Bjornson were not immediately available Friday morning for comment on their plans to backfill Lawwill’s post. “It was not easy to leave,” says Lawwill. “There are some really fine people over there; and in the five years I was there I learned a great deal from Bob Stutte and Brian Bjornson.”