KANSAS CITY—NAI Global now has 165 member firms with 385 offices around the world, and aims to boost those totals even more over the next three years. And as reported in GlobeSt.com this week, its latest addition was NAI LaSala-Sonnenberg, an independently-owned firm in the Kansas City metropolitan area with 11 full-time agents.
“It's not the first time we've been in Kansas City,” NAI president Jay Olshonsky tells GlobeSt.com. The membership network had a firm in Kansas City over the last few years, but when it left to join JLL, Olshonsky felt it was imperative to bring in a new member. “The Kansas City area is certainly a primary market in the US,” and NAI wants coverage of a full range of markets, including primary, secondary and tertiary.
And many local firms have increasingly felt the need to join forces with global powerhouses. “Business is no longer occurring on a local level,” Brandon LaSala, managing partner of NAI LaSala-Sonnenberg, tells GlobeSt.com. “We have clients that want to work outside the metro area,” and having connections to hundreds of offices worldwide is invaluable. Furthermore, NAI firms, although they remain independent and locally-owned, get a name that rebrands them as global players. “It's a ready-made platform for firms like ours.”
Sarah Ludwig, marketing director for NAI LaSala-Sonnenberg, tells GlobeSt.com that becoming a member allowed her to overhaul the brand with an array of new marketing materials that “I did not have access to previously.” A new, more elaborate website was an additional bonus.
“We have very dynamic growth plans,” Olshonsky says. NAI has an “active full-time membership team” searching for potential partners everywhere from major cities like Chicago to smaller markets like Las Cruces, NM. “We want to have a market-leading firm in all of those cities.”
NAI hope to reach 200 member firms this year and hit 250 firms, with as many as 450 offices, within three years, he adds. “We are not looking to buy or own our offices,” he says. The underlying philosophy of NAI Global is that independent owners feel empowered to make independent decisions. “That's one of our big messaging pillars. That's who we are.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
