Colliers hires three brokers from NAI Global

From left: New hires Mark De Riemer, Charles Goldberg and Andrew Simon; Colliers COO Joseph Caridi

New York City’s commercial leasing and sales brokers continue to play musical chairs.

Colliers International announced today that it had hired three brokers from the Manhattan office of international competitor NAI Global. The news comes a week after Jones Lang LaSalle poached veteran Cushman & Wakefield producer Mitchell Konsker and four of his top teammates.

Colliers has brought on Andrew Simon for investments sales and leasing; Mark De Riemer for investments sales; and Charles Goldberg for leasing, according to Joseph Caridi, company chief operating officer.

Simon said he is going to split his time between sales and leasing. He noted there is opportunity in investment sales because buyers are looking for more options outside of the big three brokerage companies that control the large deals.

Buyers are “frustrated by the lack of product and the process. You have three firms that control the market,” he said, without identifying them.

Colliers now has about a half-dozen investments sales brokers focusing on New York City, including Simon and De Riemer, Caridi said.

There would likely be additional hires in the first or second quarter. “We are talking to a couple of teams now,” Caridi said.

NAI Global has made hires of its own, announcing last week that it had hired Peter Ruggiero as a managing director for its global capital markets team. He was previously at Cassidy Turley.

Colliers was second in worldwide transaction volume in 2009, behind CB Richard Ellis, in a ranking by National Real Estate Investor. NAI Global was sixth in worldwide transaction volume in 2009, but lags behind rivals in Manhattan.

Before he was at NAI Global, Simon was with the firm Colliers ABR, the predecessor to Cassidy Turley in New York. He also worked in prior years with Julien J. Studley and Jones Lang Wootton.

He said he was hired after speaking on a panel with Mark Jaccom, the CEO of the Colliers New York office, in November.

While some of the hires, such as Simon, were made weeks ago, the company kept it under wraps, a spokesperson said, because it did not want to make the announcement during the holiday season when it would receive little attention.