(Crystal Proenza is associate editor of Real Estate Florida.)

MIAMI-In a time of financial uncertainty with no bottom to the real estate downturn in sight, locally based Colliers Abood Wood-Fay is in expansion mode. The commercial real estate firm has added a distressed property services group, brought on an additional investment sales teams, will be expanding its property management team and is getting ready to launch an advisory services group.

Michael Fay, president of Colliers Abood Wood-Fay, says there is no better time to expand. Fay will lead the 10-person distressed property services group, an area where he grew as a broker early in his career, he tells GlobeSt.com. "I was once the owner of a bank and I know what the regulators are looking for," Fay says. "We know how to navigate through the regulatory issues to maximize assets."

The leasing, management and financial specialties of all three partners—Fay, Donna Abood and Thomas D. Wood Jr.—make the team more excited about this market than it has been in the last five years, says Fay. Services offered by the newly formed distressed group include capital markets financing, workout exchanges, joint-venture structures, property repositioning, finance restructuring, and investment analysis and strategy.