TYSONS CORNER, VA-Nearly a year to the day that it acquired the locally-based Appian Realty Advisors, Canadian company Avison Young has widened its local footprint further with another acquisition: Millennium Realty Advisors. Avison Young plans to merge Millennium’s McLean, VA-based office with its own operation here into a new office somewhere in Northern Virginia.

The deal puts Avison among the top five agency leasing businesses in Northern Virginia, a goal that took just a year to reach, Keith Lipton, Avison Young’s managing director of the Washington DC region tells GlobeSt.com. “Millennium is significantly expanding our client base, adding about 6.5 million square feet of agency leasing to our portfolio,” he says. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed other than that the deal adds new principals and nine employees all together to Avison Young’s local office.

Millennium Realty Advisors was founded in 1997 by John McEvilly and Mike Shuler who, along with Douglas Eliot, James Palmer and Robert Walters are joining as principals. Nathan Krill and Joseph Pilch are joining as vice presidents, Brokerage Services and Sophrona Chinoy as director.

This acquisition is also part of Avison Young’s larger growth story. Over the past two and a half years it has gone from 11 to 23 offices, adding more than 450 real estate professionals to its employee rolls in both Canada and the US.

And the story isn’t over for the DC area, Lipton says. The company also hopes to expand its presence in suburban Maryland and the District. The fact that it has emphasized Northern Virginia with these two acquisitions was more a matter of opportunity than a specific strategy, he says. “Our larger goal is to build out in the region.”