"The first order of business is to try to get people doing business together," John A. Gates, JLL's soon-to-be president of brokerage for the Americas, tells GlobeSt.com. "It's a spread-sheet exercise. It will be months in the making, but it's important to get people working together." Dallas-based Staubach has 600 local market brokers in more than 70 offices in the US, Canada and Mexico while Chicago-based JLL has 100 local market brokers in its 54 offices in the US, Canada and Latin America.

In terms of space, Staubach leases 475,000 sf in its markets and JLL, 720,000 sf. When the shifting is done, Gates says "the net effect on net absorption should be pretty neutral." Local market tenant rep teams will be pulled together based on their specialties. But, the logistics decision also will weigh lease expirations, expansion capabilities and locations.

Using Dallas as an example, Gates says both offices are nearly full. He says the entire team and its founder Roger Staubach are still planning to move in May 2009 to Staubach's under-construction headquarters building from their Addison Circle offices. The 141,000-sf, class A office building at 8343 Douglas Ave. also will house Staubach Retail and Cypress Equities, which will remain independent of the JLL-branded new company. He says the fate of JLL's Galleria office will be decided later.

JLL's William Krouch will continue as CEO of the Americas' market business for the 700-strong brokerage team. Gates says the post-merger brokerage team will be focused on locking in market share in as many markets as it can. The marriage automatically provides that edge in several markets, including Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington, DC--homeport for Staubach CEO Greg O'Brien--who has been named CEO of brokerage for the Americas. The books are still being reviewed, so the exact number isn't available. "But, we think we'll be in market-leading positions in nine or 10 markets," Gates says.

Gates, now Staubach's president and COO, says the integration goal is to keep brokerage deals flowing smoothly without interruption before, during and after the marriage goes into effect. "We want to make sure our people can keep doing what they're doing, especially the revenue producers from Day One," he stresses, "and then we can work on additional resources for each of the legacy teams."

When the honeymoon begins, JLL will have 14 new corporate offices in the US, thanks to Staubach. In Texas, the post-merger JLL will get offices in Austin, Fort Worth and San Antonio. In California, it adds Oakland and Walnut Creek. The Florida addition is Tallahassee and Tampa and the Nevada positions are Las Vegas and Reno. The deal also opens doors for JLL in Bethesda, MD, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Memphis and Murray Hill, NJ.