By John Rogers
One of Utah’s heavy hitters in the commercial real estate arena has been busted up — well, sort of.
Although the local leadership and staff of Salt Lake City-based Coldwell Banker Commercial Advisors (CBC Advisors) will remain in place, just about everything else — including its ownership — has changed. Offices and operations in the company’s Intermountain region have been purchased by Toronto-based Colliers International Group Inc. The CBC Advisors offices acquired by Colliers include all of the Utah offices, an office in Alaska and one in Glendale, California. In addition to the headquarters office in downtown Salt Lake City, the firm has offices on Millrock Drive in Salt Lake City, in St. George, in Pleasant Grove and a valuation office on Wasatch Boulevard in Salt Lake City.
The Colliers Utah-based operation has been rebranded to Colliers International Utah or Colliers Utah.
At the same time, the remaining operations of CBC Advisors were bought by First Capital of New York City and have been renamed Advisors Commercial Real Estate (ACRE). That acquisition includes CBC Advisors offices in New York; New Jersey; Colorado; Texas; Arizona; and the Southern California communities of Los Angeles, Irvine, El Segundo and Ontario. ACRE will be led by Suneet Singal, a partner at First Capital.
Terms of neither transaction have been disclosed.
Brandon Fugal, former chairman of CBC Advisors, will direct operations of Colliers Utah as chairman and lead partner. Lew Cramer remains as CEO.
Founded in 1998, CBC Advisors — now Colliers Utah — employs 200 and specializes in investment sales, lease brokerage, property management and consulting and advisory services to local, regional, national and global clients. It is widely recognized as the dominant market player in commercial real estate services in Utah.
“Our core principles and values align perfectly with the entrepreneurial culture and focus on service excellence exemplified by Colliers’ spirit of enterprise,” Fugal said. He expects the association with Colliers to put his office in a position to become a player in commercial real estate’s global market. “As part of the Colliers International global brand and platform, we can leverage our collective scale, resources and international infrastructure to continue our growth and accelerate the success of our clients and professionals.”
Fugal cited the development of the proposed inland port in Salt Lake City’s Northwest Quadrant and the rapidly growing Silicon Slopes region in Salt Lake and Utah counties as examples of the changing commercial real estate landscape in Utah. “The ability for us to help elevate the Silicon Slopes movement and drive more activity and focus to Utah (will) inevitably create jobs and services for our communities,” he said.
With 2017 corporate revenues of $2.3 billion, Colliers is the fastest-growing publicly listed global real estate company, operating in 69 countries with more than 12,000 employees, the company said in announcing its acquisition of CBC Advisors.
Prior to the acquisition, CBC Advisors had employed 150 brokers in its 12 nationwide offices and was the largest commercial brokerage firm in the Coldwell Banker organization and the top-performing Coldwell Banker Commercial affiliate globally, with over $4 billion in assets under management and a closed volume of over $2 billion in 2017.
“Our new partnership in Utah provides Colliers with another market-leading platform, this time in the fast-growing Intermountain region,” said Marty Pupil, president of Colliers International U.S. Brokerage. “Adding this outstanding business and highly successful group of real estate professionals will enable Colliers to better serve our clients regionally, nationally and internationally.”
First Capital is a privately held commercial and residential real estate finance firm, which is involved in real estate acquisition, land development, residential and commercial construction and retail operations. The firm also has private holdings, including development projects and other real estate assets.
“This acquisition provides for a unique mix of investment and brokerage within a national asset management platform,” said Singal. “CBC has distinguished itself as a boutique brokerage platform with custom-tailored solutions. Our approach to identifying unutilized value in dynamic secondary markets coupled with the credibility and trust CBC Advisors has earned in the investment community will greatly serve our investors and clients.”