Colliers International
Specialty: Commercial real estate leasing, investment sales, property management and consulting
Management: Douglas Frye, president and CEO; Peter Truex, senior managing director, Pacific Northwest Region; Bret Jordan, managing director, Bellevue office
Founded: 1976
Headquarters: 2 Union Square, Seattle
Current projects: Recently represented Clearwire Legacy in an office lease of 71,639 square feet at Bellevue’s 1445 Building; represent the Portside Distribution Center, leasing 416,050 square feet of industrial property in Tacoma; have a land listing with Teutsch Partners for 160 acres near I-5 in Lacey; represent the landlord, Colony Realty Partners, at the 240,000-square-foot The Park at Woodinville
Photo courtesy of Colliers International Colliers International recently listed for sale the 340,000-square-foot Battelle Memorial Institute campus in Richland for $82 million.
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Senior Managing Director Peter Truex said 2009 has been a growth year for Colliers International. As the company’s clients downsized their own real estate groups or acquisitions departments, Truex said, they increasingly looked to outsource those services to Colliers.
Colliers expanded its clients services group, its property management services group and its global workplace solutions group, which helps multi-market, multinational companies optimize property holdings and get rid of surplus assets.
“As our clients’ businesses have been challenged, we have put more resources into those areas,” Truex said. Colliers also saw growth in its tenant representation business, representing some large, local law firms and technology clients including Clearwire.
Short decision cycles
Truex said one of the biggest challenges, and one of the biggest changes from 2008 to 2009, was how much clients’ decision cycles have been compressed.
“We need to make these decisions and we need to make them quickly, that’s been the difference,” Truex said. “It’s in our clients’ need for speed in timely decisions and accurate information.”
Colliers has had to reinvent itself in recent years to serve clients’ needs, Truex said. In the past, a client might have just wanted them to find a property, but now they are also looking for more, like advice on where to locate to attract the best workers, and help finding financing solutions.
“We have added these fields of expertise to meet our customers’ more specialized and more timely needs,” Truex said. “We’re much more than a property finder.”
Optimism
Truex said he’s optimistic about the local real estate market. He said Russell Investments moving its headquarters from Tacoma to the former WaMu Center is great for downtown Seattle. He said having the space leased helps with absorption, but that’s secondary to what the move means for confidence in the downtown market.
“Having those skilled workers in downtown Seattle will do great things for other employers and the retailers downtown,” Truex said. “It’s about the business effect of having a key player on the world stage choose Seattle for its headquarters.”
Truex said he also is optimistic that Boeing will win in its current bid attempt to replace the Air Force’s aging tanker fleet. He said that would add more confidence to the market. He said Seattle also continues to benefit from its growing reputation as a science and technology hub. He said with the University of Washington, PATH, Fred Hutchinson, the Gates Foundation and others continuing to grow, that is a huge anchor for the region.
Opportunities
Truex said large, well-heeled investors are starting to move back into the local real estate market. He said they have begun to see investment in large eastern markets and investors are looking to purchase assets locally in the beginning of 2010. So far, he said local data points are Northwestern Mutual purchasing the Chase Center and the sale of the Expedia Tower in Bellevue.
“Those are the kinds of opportunities that investors are looking at now,” he said. “Fully leased buildings that are priced fairly are being looked at by investors with keen eyes.”