Colliers International:
The More Things Change...

Colliers Leaders.  Standing, Bob Mathews (left) and Jon Barry (right).  Seated, Bick Cardwell.

Bick Cardwell, Bob Mathews and Jon Barry, not to mention Bill Law, Bob Allen, Caldwell Zimmerman and the entire Cauble team. They're still the same guys that made Cauble & Co. and then Colliers Cauble and then Colliers Spectrum Cauble one of Atlanta's leading commercial real estate firms.

Now, though, the playing field is a little bigger as the company has entered an agreement with Colliers International and Toronto-based First Service Real Estate Advisors, creating the world's third-largest services firm under the Colliers International brand.

What was once a network is now a fully integrated enterprise with 480 offices globally. Ultimately, First Service will own 70 percent of Colliers International with the remainder owned by companies in the former Colliers network.

 "It's business as usual on steroids," said Cardwell, chairman of Colliers International's Atlanta office.

The transition enables Colliers to integrate its platform to better meet clients' needs on a national and international basis, especially in fields like corporate services, project management and valuation, Mathews said.

The process hasn't been simple, though. Colliers International lost a few members of the old network, notably Colliers Turley Martin Tucker in the Midwest, Cassidy & Pinkard in Washington, D.C., and Colliers ABR in New York, which formed a new firm, Cassidy Turley. Conversely, Colliers International gained a larger presence in New York by adding First Service Williams, formerly Williams GVA. By the end of the third quarter, Colliers International intends to backfill many of the Cassidy Pinkard markets, said Mathews, president and CEO of the Atlanta office.

"What you're seeing is nothing less than what you're seeing in many other industries, increased consolidation," Mathews said. "It will probably accelerate over the next few years because of market conditions."