"We are confident that the Colliers platform will pay big dividends to our clients," Hynes insisted in his opening remarks before several hundred gathered at the Marriott Copley Place for the afternoon program, one that has emerged as the Boston commercial real estate industry's version of a commencement address for the coming year. Yesterday's seminar offered the typical review of market activity and forecast for 2008 accentuated by a heavy hitting guest, in this case former US Commerce Secretary William Daley. The scion of late Chicago Mayor Richard Daley joins an impressive list of past speakers at the event, among them Fidelity Investments chairman Edward C. Johnson III, MIT president Charles M. Vest and author Tom Wolfe. Industry icons speaking have ranged from Alan Leventhal and Edward Linde to Michael Fascitelli, Gerald Hines and Samuel Zell.

M&G's sale of an 80% interest to FirstService Corp. of Toronto last September was a monumental occurrence for a region that has seen many of its old-line firms disappear as national and international players have descended upon New England's commercial real estate scene. The Boston office of Colliers became disengaged when former affiliate Spaulding & Slye was bought out by Jones Lang LaSalle two years ago, giving the international real estate network no branch in the city where it is headquartered. The new arrangement ends that omission, while Hynes says M&G benefits by hooking into one of the world's largest real estate networks, a footprint featuring 267 offices in 57 countries. Unlike Spaulding & Slye, the M&G brand that dates to 1875 survives the changeover. Ironically, the announcement comes the same week that Newmark Knight Frank confirmed it has bought the Codman Co., another Boston real estate company whose roots date to the 1870s.

Besides unveiling the rebranding, Colliers M&G professionals delivered an assessment of various sectors including leasing and property sales. Most of the reviews reflected the rough ending to 2007 and challenges going forward from the subprime mortgage crisis and related debt crunch. Colliers M&G president Kevin Phelan, an expert on commercial lending, predicted that uncertainty will continue in the early going of 2008, with CMBS issuance likely to be spotty. EVP David Douvadjian concurred, estimating that the $300 billion of CMBS issued in 2007 could dwindle to 20% of that level this year. Any CMBS rebound will come late, he opined, citing banks and life insurers as the most reliable sources of debt until that recovery.