Cushman Expands Alliance with Commerce

March 22, 2010
By Allison Landa, News Editor

Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons user WordRidden

In a strategic move to expand its brokerage and property management services to both the Seattle and Bellevue markets, Commerce Real Estate Solutions has expanded its alliance with Cushman & Wakefield.

The Salt Lake City-based commercial real estate services provider is one of 27 members of the Cushman & Wakefield Alliance Program, an association of local and regional firms in more than 55 strategic markets. Commerce will add more industrial, office and retail brokerage employees along with expanding the Washington office’s services to local and government agencies, financial institutions, and existing national and global clients. All employees will remain under the Cushman & Wakefield flag.

“The benefit, we believe, is to the clients – to be able to meet client needs for those who have multiple offices or locations in Tier I and Tier II markets in the west is a distinct advantage,” Commerce president and CEO Mike Lawson told CPE. “No other locally owned firm has this type of network in the west, and we believe that’s a differentiating factor. In fact, just in the short time that the Seattle/Bellevue markets have been part of our operation, we’re seeing that interface bear fruit.”

Lawson said both Seattle and Bellevue are very entrepreneurial markets that move quickly and aggressively, much like Las Vegas and Salt Lake.

“Cushman believed, as do we, that the best service to the clients and the agents in that market could be delivered via a locally owned, regionally positioned firm,” he noted. “We’ve been alliance members of Cushman & Wakefield for more than six years and believe that the relationship provides extraordinary value for our clients.”

Lawson added that the expansion will grow Commerce’s western region presence, making it a first tier market, and enable the company to better serve customers. He believes that they will face the same challenges that come with any type of growth, including training new staff and introducing new technologies.

“However,” he said, “our firm has a good deal of experience in growing new markets, and we expect the transition to be relatively seamless.”