Colliers ABR to split from Colliers International, become part of new company

From left: Mark Boisi, Colliers ABR chairman, and Dylan Taylor, Real Estate Adviors president and CEO

Manhattan-based real estate service company Colliers ABR will not be part of the new firm created through the combination of its global umbrella partnership Colliers International and Seattle-based FirstService Real Estate Advisors, the parent company of Manhattan-based FirstService Williams.

Colliers ABR has elected to become part of a new real estate corporation based in St. Louis called Cassidy Turley, which was created by some of the largest affiliates of Colliers International and is not part of a new combined global company, a source familiar with the deal told The Real Deal.

FirstService REA and Colliers International announced today they would combine to form one of the world’s largest commercial services firms, behind California-based CB Richard Ellis and Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle. It will be based in Seattle, Wash., the headquarters of FirstService REA, and the merger will be completed by the end of the second quarter, FirstService Real Estate Advisors president and CEO Dylan Taylor told The Real Deal.

Cassidy Turley’s formation is expected to be announced later this week by the participating firms such as Colliers ABR that created it, the source said.

The company Cassidy Turley filed with the Missouri Secretary of State to incorporate in May 2009, state records showed.

Following the Colliers International merger, FirstService Williams will be known as Colliers International. It was not immediately known when Colliers ABR would take the name Cassidy Turley.

Taylor, who will become president and CEO of Colliers International in the United States, said he has great expectations for the merged company globally, but also in New York City.

Currently, FirstService Williams is one of the second-tier firms in the city along with Colliers ABR and Grubb & Ellis, far behind the city’s largest firms, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield and Newmark Knight Frank.

Within three years of the merger, Taylor said he expects it to be one of the three largest commercial service firms in New York City.

“I would be disappointed if we are not in the top three,” he said.

While Mark Boisi, Colliers ABR chairman, did not comment on splitting from Colliers International, he said in an e-mailed statement that the interests of his firm and the parent company had diverged.

“While we are the largest component of Colliers USA, we believe we have outgrown it,” Boisi said in the e-mail.

He did not comment on the new company, nor did representatives at the St. Louis office of the Colliers International affiliate Colliers Turley Martin Tucker.

The same source said FirstService tried to “bully” the partnerships into joining the new Colliers International, but Colliers ABR and others refused.

Taylor would not comment on whether FirstService Real Estate Advisors sought to bring Colliers ABR into the new company.

“I don’t know if I should comment,” he said, “but we anticipate that very few of the current affiliates that we think deserve the Colliers International brand will not choose to align themselves with us.”