Merger Cements Firm's Staying Power

NEW YORK CITY-As GlobeSt.com discussed a rumored GVA Williams-Colliers deal in early July, and after the recent $630 million Jones Lang LaSalle and Staubach Co. union, the wave of mergers among real estate service firms is clearly continuing. Colliers Turley Martin Tucker formerly revealed that it, along with Colliers Pinkard and Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers are consolidating ownership structures into one holding company. Following the closing of this transaction, the new holding company will expand to include locally based Colliers ABR, and industry sources say that it puts Colliers ABR in quite a good position.

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When anonymous industry sources were previously interviewed in the July story about Colliers International–which the four companies are members of–and GVA Williams, they said that Colliers ABR would be the main question mark in a potential merger deal. “GVA Williams does export a lot of corporate business, that is not Colliers ABR’s motivation,” one source said. “The way Colliers International works is that ABR is a franchisee and there is no ownership link, so it would stand on its own in New York.”

Industry sources now tell GlobeSt.com that with this recent merger news, the question is nearly answered. The true motivation is most likely that this merger cements ABR’s position within Colliers International, one source says.

Another source notes that there is now less risk for Colliers ABR to be isolated because it will now be part of the parent company. This merger makes sure that ABR is not marginalized when a GVA Williams-Colliers deal comes to fruition, the source says, which GlobeSt.com is told should be “near the end of the month.”

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The industry sources’ assessments were largely confirmed by Mark Boisi, chairman of Colliers ABR, in an interview with GlobeSt.com. “We think we will benefit from the capital markets resources and talent base that Cassidy & Pinkard has in Washington, DC,” he says. “We’ll bring that expertise to New York and build on our existing relationships and theirs.”

Boisi notes that in DC, Cassidy & Pinkard is “as formidable as some of our New York brethren like Eastdil” are in this market. “We’re in the middle of negotiating with two groups within the New York marketplace to embolden our efforts in capital markets investment sales financing. With their relationships and their know-how, we’ll be able to grow that business line pretty dramatically in New York.”