"The formation of Avison Young (Canada) represents the next stepin our strategy to aggressively grow both domestically andglobally," says Mark Rose, CEO, in a statement. "With this mergerand our strong balance sheet, we are well-placed to pursue ourpriorities of building our platform and expanding our services andgeographic reach."

Avison Young is a real estate services company embedded in theCanadian market. The company boasts Canadian offices in Vancouver,Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, Mississauga, Toronto, Ottawa,Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax. A representative of Avison Youngtells GlobeSt.com, "As Avison Young has operated under one bannerfor a long time, they expect integration will be quick and alloperating platforms consolidated within a year."

"Our partners have worked to structure the company to capitalizeon the emerging Canadian and international opportunities," says BobLevine, British Columbia, member of the board of directors, in astatement. "This agreement is the realization of the long-term goalof the existing provincial companies to form a powerful, nationalorganization that can both better serve our clients in Canada andtake our firm to a new level, globally."