Colliers’ Harbert is on hunt for top Cushman talent

Joe Harbert
Joe Harbert

The president of the Eastern Region of Colliers International is looking to nab top brokers from his former firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Joe Harbert, who left Cushman in 2012 after eight years, wants to expand his team so Colliers can win big-ticket projects. “If you’re a 76-broker shop and you try to compete with a behemoth that has 187 or 246 brokers, you need to add brokers, and that’s one thing that we’re about to do,” he told the New York Times.

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Harbert, a former public school teacher who started in real estate with the Metropolitan Transit Authority, is devoting a big chunk of his time to wooing retail brokers because he thinks that’s the market that Colliers can see its biggest growth. Two other areas to make strides: investment sales and multifamily markets. Leasing makes up about 90 percent of Colliers’ business, he told the newspapers.

Harbert plans on staying with Colliers for a good, long time. “This is really where I’d like to be,” he said. “It’s going to take a while to build this. We’re still in the ramp-up.” [NYT]  – Hiten Samtani