PHOENIX-In a move to broaden its reach both nationally and internationally, Velocity Retail Group LLC has joined up with X Team International, a network of retail real estate advisors in major markets throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Velocity Retail made the move to help broaden its presence on a national and international platform.

"The first company I worked with was CBRE, and when you're with a large, national firm, one of the benefits you find is having offices in major markets," explains Dave Cheatham Velocity Retail principal. As the locally based Velocity Retail is interested in branching out, the alliance with X Team – which consists of a group of former CBRE executives like Cheatham – made sense.

Cheatham tells GlobeSt.com that X Team approached him to join. "There were actually several candidates in the Phoenix area that wanted to be a member," Cheatham notes. "We're excited to be chosen to represent X Team in the Phoenix marketplace."

As the relationship is an affiliation as opposed to a specific merger, Velocity Retail will keep its branding and personnel, though the company is branding itself as part of X Team's retail network.

Cheatham says he likes the fact that other companies involved with the alliance were hand-picked by X Team executives, and are among the top one or two retail service providers in a given market. As such, if Velocity Retail needs to open a new retail store in Chicago or California, "we can go to an X Team partner that's already a proven performer, and can work with a guy who has boots on the ground," Cheatham says. The reverse of this is true as well – if an X Team affiliate needs help in the Phoenix area, that affiliate can contact Velocity Retail.

"We wouldn't have representation in 35 major markets if not for X Team," Cheatham observes. "We're getting a strong level of deliverability."