SEATTLE—Coming off a year that saw Colliers International achieve double-digit growth in many of its key US markets, Craig Robinson, who joined this past March as president | USA, tells GlobeSt.com that the company is just getting started. “This is really part of a much longer narrative, which is a growth narrative,” he says.

Over the past few years, he says, the Colliers business domestically and globally has seen “significant growth. In fact, just over the past year, globally our EBITDA has doubled. In terms of our footprint, we now have almost 500 offices globally and close to 16,000 employees. And we're at a point now where our focus is in a number of strategic markets. In those markets, specifically in the US, we see even greater opportunities going forward.”

Growing those markets, through both recruitment and acquisitions, is one of five areas of focus for Robinson and the US team. Monday's announcement of a major expansion in the South Florida market typifies the company's approach in this area, with 17 appointments including several professionals who opted to stay with Colliers rather than join Avison Young, which closed on its acquisition of Abood Wood-Fay last week.

Across the US, brokerage recruits are up 16% this year, Robinson says. “We could have easily been up twice that, but we've been very selective about our culture.” There's also a pipeline of acquisition opportunities through which Colliers expects to achieve an even firmer market position, he adds.

However, the key market, and key focus for Colliers domestically, is New York City, where Robinson is based. “New York is one of our most important markets, and it's an important market for the entire industry,” Robinson says. “It's the real estate capital of the world.” Joseph Harbert, who joined Colliers as president of the Eastern region two years ago, has been a “godsend” in terms of growing the business. “Just this year, 26 new producers have joined the New York office, which is a huge testament to what Joe is doing.”

Another key focal point is capital markets, including sales as well as debt and equity. Although this sector comprises 40% of Colliers' brokerage revenues currently, “we think there's an opportunity to grow that and deepen that in some of our gateway markets,” says Robinson. The company has enjoyed a record year in that area, “but I don't think we've even begun to scratch the surface.”

There's also an ongoing focus on making the company's service as client-friendly as possible, and Robinson says that's a topic he could discuss all day. “I believe that by and large, the industry has organized around itself,” he says.

“We organize it around our products and service lines, and our clients don't operate that way," he conitnues. "A client is not a tenant rep client, or a project management client or an investment sales client; a client is an investor in real estate or an occupier in real estate. We are aggressively focused on removing any and all silos, any noise, any barrier, any friction that would prevent us from delivering the highest level of service to our clients, regardless of location or the mix of service lines.”

Finally, Robinson says, he's focused on doing what Dylan Taylor has been doing as global COO, and that is “continuing to strengthen our platform. We're making massive investments in technology to support these initiatives that we've already laid out, developing technology that will enable us to serve our clients better. These are the investments that we think are the ones that matter; these are the things our clients really value. They want information, they want insights, they want these tools and these are things that we've got to provide.”

It's an ongoing process, he says, and one that is never really finished. “You've got to constantly revisit whether the platform is meeting the needs of your clients.”