ISELIN, NJ—Sitar Realty Co., the third largest brokerage firm in New Jersey, has joined international real estate services organization TCN Network as its Northern New Jersey affiliate, GlobeSt.com has learned exclusively.
Sitar is now known as Sitar Realty Co./TCN Worldwide. And though some may think it logical that the two organizations have joined forces – its principals have known each other for years – the marriage actually had a lengthy courtship, the principals tell GlobeSt.com in exclusive interviews.
“I grew up in and started my career in New Jersey,” says H. Ross Ford, president and CEO of TCN Worldwide. “Bill Sitar Sr. knew my dad.”
But despite the relationships, the marriage of Sitar and TCN was not a given. “It’s been a long process of meetings with both sides starting to know each other,” Ford recalls. “We’d been looking to find the right broker for us in Northern New Jersey – our previous associate was no longer involved in brokerage.”
TCN, a consortium of independent commercial real estate firms, had been searching for a couple of years to fill the slot. The organization needed a firm that covered from Route 1 in Princeton north to the New York border, and was experienced in office, industrial and retail brokerage and transactions, representing landlords and tenants. Work with multifamily and land transactions was a plus.
Other factors, such as culture, mattered as well. “We are an entrepreneurial, independent group of companies,” Ford says.
The personal relationship had found each organization advising each other about possible matchups. But Ford is quick to stress that “the selection process was mutual.”
Sitar Realty had been a founding and longtime member of ONCOR, another service organization, but found that their paths had diverged, says Bill Sitar Jr., VP of Sitar Realty Co.
“You have to have a national and international platform should you need to send business out of state—and you know there will be a competent broker to handle it,” Sitar says. “And they can call us. We’ve been doing this for a while.”
A 30-year-old, full-service real estate firm, Sitar Realty Company/TCN Worldwide specializes in office and industrial leasing and sales, property disposition, consulting for acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, strategic reviews, asset management and tenant representation as well as owner representation for exclusive agencies. Now, Sitar will benefit from TCN Worldwide's of 800-plus brokers worldwide (its newest member is in Greece), its global databases well as the organization’s educational and support tools.
“We thought it was a good fit,” Sitar says. “The other members are all independently owned and entrepreneurial. Some own real estate, as we do; others manage, like we do. And they are headed by a strong team in Dallas.”
Sitar and TCN have signed a multiyear agreement, that later can be renewed in single-year increments. “In the end, all real estate is local,” Sitar says. “A lot of people in the business know us. At the end of the day, we can offer time, attention and market knowledge.”
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