MIAMI—As reported on Monday, Avison Young's move to acquire the Abood Wood-Fay Real Estate Group will shake up Miami's commercial real estate brokerage scene. But what does it mean for Colliers International, which is losing its South Florida team?

Michael Fay and Donna Abood will become Avison principals and managing director's of the growing Canada-based real estate firm's Miami office. The 30-year commercial real estate veterans, who serve as chairs and founding partners of Colliers International South Florida, will focus on growing the Avison platform in the Miami region. John Crotty, executive vice president of Abood Wood-Fay, will also serve as a principal of Avison Young.

Although Fay and Abood were not immediately available for comment, Colliers International is speaking out. In a public statement, leadership expressed well wishes for the team and offered some explanation about the split.

“Michael Fay and Donna Abood approached Colliers on numerous occasions with an offer for us to buy their company and we declined as our growth expectations for Miami were not aligned with their business strategy,” the company said in a statement. “To that end, we mutually agreed to terminate our agreement and are now focused on growing a best-in-class South Florida operation that is owned by Colliers International.”

Colliers went on to say that it has had a “significant interest” in the South Florida market over the years and interest has understandably spiked in the last couple of weeks. Craig Robinson, president of Colliers' US business and Joe Harbert, president of its Eastern Region, are assessing the best option to “enhance” its operations and “support” its broader US strategy.

“We expect to have an announcement in the near future in relation to new appointments and specific growth plans,” the firm said. “Colliers International is committed to furthering our presence in the state of Florida to better support activities in the Southeast region where we have 24 offices throughout 8 states. With six offices and 200 professionals in Florida, we facilitated over $600 million in sale and lease transactions last year and provide local and national clients a full range of real estate services.”