On March 1, a number of separate firms formed a single company,Cassidy Turley, including Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, Cassidy& Pinkard Colliers, Colliers ABR, Colliers Pinkard, BTCommercial, BRE Commercial in Southern California and BRECommercial in Arizona. Mark Burkhart, CEO of Cassidy Turley, tellsGlobeSt.com that adding this local firm was a natural fit. "Jim hasbeen a very good friend of mine for a long time, we were foundingmembers of Colliers 25 years ago," Burkhart says.

Barry's firm has operated out of Milwaukee for nearly 90 years,specializing in industrial, office, retail and investmentbrokerage. The firm has sold and leased more than one billionsquare feet of real estate, and has a large presence in Wisconsin.Barry said in a statement that the move was correct in such anincreasingly competitive global marketplace. "We will be able toexpand and broaden our service offerings to both investors andusers," he said.

Burkhart says the reason for his new firm's growth is based onclient demand. The company focuses on property management,corporate services and capital markets, "and there's great growthin all of those areas," he says. "For example, J.P. Morgan justassigned 3,000 properties to us, we just got the Weight Watchersaccount and Panattoni has assigned us 20 million square feet ofmanagement from the Rocky Mountains to the East Coast."