Colliers comes to N.M. via affiliation

The first new Colliers International signs, like the one shown here, were coming off the production line at Albuquerque Reprographics last week. (Courtesy of colliers international)

A marquee name in commercial real-estate services, Seattle-based Colliers International, has finally come to New Mexico courtesy of one of Albuquerque’s leading homegrown brokerage and property management companies.

Grubb & Ellis New Mexico officially rebrands itself as Colliers International today through an affiliation agreement.

“We entered into conversations with a number of companies that were interested in having a presence in New Mexico,” said John Ransom, managing director of the company’s Albuquerque office. “We liked Colliers’ culture. They are very in tune and active. We’ll still be locally owned and operated, but with a whole new energy.”

Tracing its roots back to 1985, the company then known as Lewinger Hamilton Inc. affiliated with Santa Ana, Calif.-based Grubb & Ellis in 1997. The affiliation worked well until last year when the financially struggling Grubb & Ellis corporate operation was bought by BGC Partners, an international financial brokerage.

Grubb & Ellis corporate was merged into a larger commercial real-estate services firm headquartered in New York City, Newmark Knight Frank, that BGC Partners had acquired in 2011. As an affiliate office, rather than a corporate-owned office, Grubb & Ellis New Mexico felt like the odd man out, Ransom said.

“Our feeling was that corporate-owned (offices) was their focus,” he said. “Culturally, there were some differences moving forward.”

Colliers, which has 522 offices with 12,300 professionals in 62 countries, recently tied for second as a top global brand in commercial real estate in the annual survey done by the Lipsey Co. The merged Newmark Grubb Knight Frank ranked fourth.

A subsidiary of FirstService Corp., Colliers dates back to 1898 in Canada but started to take its present shape in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It has the global platform and resources, including a in-house university for staff development, that would be expected of an international company.

“The nice thing about having an international affiliation is getting access to technology and information at a global level,” Ransom said. “Rubbing shoulders with the best and brightest in the profession is really appealing.”

The former Grubb & Ellis New Mexico, now Colliers, has 55 employees, including 27 brokers, in offices in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The company closed nearly 350 commercial real-estate transactions valued at $93.8 million in 2012. Its property-management division manages a portfolio of 2.1 million square feet of office, retail and industrial space.

“We’ve remained profitable through the downturn,” Ransom said.

The local operation will spend from $75,000 to $100,000 rebranding itself as Colliers International, Ransom said. The black-and-gold Grubb & Ellis New Mexico signs that dot the commercial landscape will gradually be replaced by the mostly blue-and-white color scheme of the Colliers logo.

Colliers, which has existing clients in New Mexico, has sought a presence here in the past. In 2011, another homegrown commercial real-estate services firm, Roger Cox & Associates, briefly affiliated with Colliers International before terminating the agreement.

Colliers’ closest existing offices are in Dallas, Denver and Phoenix.