"Alexander Summer has had an alliance with CRESA for four years, and with a restructuring of their business they have accepted an invitation to become part of CRESA Partners," CRESA president/CEO Michael Dow tells GlobeSt.com. "We've been having informal discussions with them for some time, and formal discussions began this past spring."

"Beginning in 1999, we saw the top firms start to merge their operations so that they had better accountability and better client services," adds Doug Haynes, president of Alexander Summer, who will become managing principal of CRESA Partners/NJ. "Merging part of our business with CRESA will do that for us.

"We see this as a unique opportunity because as part of CRESA we have shared equity in all 22 CRESA offices," Haynes tells GlobeSt.com. "This is really a step up because it makes us an equity partner instead of just an alliance member."

Under the arrangement, according to Haynes, Alexander Summer will maintain its existing Paramus offices. CRESA Partners/NJ will primarily operate out of Morristown, NJ, and will have some staff in Paramus. "There will be new people joining the company, and several of our people will become principals in the new company."

For CRESA Partners, a relative newcomer to the region, "bringing in New Jersey is part of a tri-state initiative to ensure that we have this region properly represented," according to Dow. "I anticipate that we will be making further announcements in regard to Westchester [County, NY], Fairfield [County, CT] and other parts of the region."

On a larger scale, CRESA Partners is currently stretching its brand into such markets as Phoenix, Cincinnati, Memphis and St. Louis. The company's first four markets, dating back to 1998, were Miami, Boston, Los Angeles and San Jose, a list that has since expanded to include Washington, DC, Denver Atlanta and Philadelphia, among others.

Nationally, the company's client list includes Yahoo!, EMC, Dreamworks SKG, Liberty Mutual and Reynolds & Reynolds, to name a few. To that list, the former Alexander Summer Corporate Services Group brings Movado, US Trust, Merrill Lynch, Hawk Holdings and NUI.