SAN FRANCISCO-As of May 1, Canadian commercial real estate services company Avison Young is opening an office downtown here at 601 California St., marking the company’s 12th location outside of Canada, its third California office and the next step in the firm’s aggressive growth and expansion strategy. Nick Slonek, who has joined the company as principal and managing director of the Northern California region, will focus his efforts on overseeing the growth and development of the company’s presence throughout Northern California as well as servicing new and existing clients.
“We are excited to be opening our newest office in San Francisco, which will enhance our growing presence in the US,” says Avison Young CEO Mark Rose. “The hiring of Nick Slonek is in line with our strategic plan to expand our commercial real estate services with high-quality leaders across the nation. The San Francisco Bay area—and the entirety of the Western US region—is a vast and expanding real estate market and a focal point for many of our investor and occupier clients. We are thrilled that Nick has joined us to lead our efforts in Northern California as he has an extensive and excellent track record of building a first-class service platform in this market.”
Over the past three years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 29 offices in 26 markets and from 300 to more than 900 real estate professionals across Canada and the US. The company strategy has been to grow into a global real estate services organization, Rose tells GlobeSt.com. After merging its Canadian operations three years ago, the firm set off to open up in every major market, starting with North America, and quadrupled its size mostly in the past two years. The opening of the firm’s latest office here represents the completion of the company’s continental scope.
“Everything we do is by strategy,” Rose continues. “We’ve been able to fill a space in this market that no longer exists: a global web organization that is led by its principals, its owners. The client knows that the people working on their transaction are also the owners of the organization, so there is reputational accountability. This is different from our peer group, which is usually either a public ownership or single owner. When we do well, we have the ability to reinvest in our clients and our people rather than those profits being siphoned off to public shareholders.”
The firm views Northern California as a critical market to be in because of its investor clients’ appetite to put money in this marketplace, Avison Young’s president of US operations Earl Webb tells GlobeSt.com. “There’s been tremendous growth and development of corporate business there. One of our major client sets is: emerging growth companies—we serve them in their infancy, and as they grow we can grow right along with them. The Bay Area is perfect for this.”
Webb adds that the firm is fortunate to have Slonek join them since he shares the same vision and is plugged into both investors and occupiers. “We plan to be not just in downtown, but in Silicon Valley, the East Bay and Sacramento very soon,” Webb tells GlobeSt.com. “We’ll go north outside of California to the Pacific Northwest as we continue to expand on the West Coast.”
Slonek was most recently a principal and senior VP in the San Francisco office of Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank, which did not return GlobeSt.com’s calls for comment before deadline. “I couldn’t be more excited to join such a savvy group of real estate professionals,” Slonek tells GlobeSt.com. “Everyone from the CEO to the human resources folks all ‘gets it,’ and it’s refreshing to see such a rapidly growing company is so organized. As far as my career is concerned, it’s obviously the next step, and to be put in charge of the company’s growth in the Bay Area and beyond is not only an honor but a huge challenge. It’s important to succeed, but succeed the right way.”
Slonek will be working with Christopher Cooper—who, as GlobeSt.com was first to report, last month joined the firm’s Los Angeles office, which opened in August 2011—to deliver a first-class service platform on the West Coast, adds Rose. “The goal and objectives of our clients is to have solution-based providers that are based where they are. Where are the major headquarters in the US for leading corporate institutions and leading occupiers and inventory? The Bay Area is one of the biggest markets for both of those.”
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
