ORLANDO-In a move to expand its brokerage platform, CNL Commercial Real Estate, an affiliate of CNL Financial Group, is offering 1031 exchange investment acquisitions and dispositions. The opportunities will focus on a variety of property types, including office, retail and medical.

“We have had tremendous success with the 1031 platform at CNL and are excited to broaden this offering across multiple sectors,” says CNL Financial Group vice chairman Robert Bourne. In this vein, CNL is hiring PJ Behr, who rejoins CNL from Trinity Real Estate Group, a company he founded 18 months ago. He will serve as vice president of Investment Property Sales at CNL Commercial Real Estate, and lead the new platform. “Behr has extensive depth of knowledge in this industry and we look forward to leveraging his expertise to secure quality opportunities for our clients,” says Bourne.

Behr sees the current market as the perfect time to launch the 1031 exchange product. “Everyone is getting more confident that the economy is going in the right direction,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “We are seeing more confidence in buyers. The lending is slowly thawing out and investors are getting more and more access to debt. We are keeping a close eye on where the opportunities are.”