The firm will operate as Colliers Turley Martin Tucker in the Park Center Building at Maryland Farms in suburban Brentwood, TN. The value of the deal wasn't disclosed in a prepared statement from Colliers Turley.

Colliers Turley says it is the largest full-service commercial real estate firm in the Central United States with $2.5 billion in annual transactions and a management portfolio of 72 million sf of office, industrial and retail. Mission manages and leases 50 properties totaling six million sf.

The deal is being done at this time because it is "a logical extension of the business plan we have had all along, that is to create the premier real estate services firm in the country," Mission chairman Tom Smith says in the same statement.

Smith and Nelson Crowe, Mission's chief operating officer, will become consultants to the merged firm. Mission president Crews Johnston will be a senior vice president. All three will be major shareholders in the new company. That estimated value of their investment wasn't disclosed.

James G. Smith, Colliers Turley's senior vice president and Johnston will jointly oversee the office division. The new firm has 91 employees, including 36 brokers.

Mark E. Burkhart will continue as CEO/president of Colliers Turley. Whitfield Hamilton stays on as managing principal of the Nashville office.

"This merger truly cements our position as a Central Region powerhouse with more closed real estate transactions, more professional designated brokers and more square footage under management than any other regional or national real estate firm in the area," Burkhart says in the prepared statement.

Employee-owned Colliers Turley has 80 shareholders with 800 employees in seven major offices in Nashville, Cincinnati, Dayton, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis and St. Louis.

Colliers Turley is an owner/shareholder of Colliers International which calls itself the largest real estate federation in the world with 254 offices in 51 countries on six continents with $11.5 billion in lease transactions and $13 billion in sale deals in 2001.