Cawley Wilcox All-Star Team Snags Another Player

Bill Cawley, president and CEO, tells GlobeSt.com that his courting of the competition is all about building a class-A team to foster client relationships and brokers' confidence. Cawley International specializes in tenant rep, under the leadership of Ran Holman, who came from CB Richard Ellis a year ago. John Conger heads up Wilcox Realty Group and Steve Platt leads Wilcox Development Services. Cawley has melded the three operations in the past month under the umbrella of Cawley Wilcox Cos., snagging Cushman & Wakefield of Texas' 12-year senior managing director J. Reagan Dixon as its vice chairman and COO. Just four months ago, the Cawley team lured Joseph Owen from the Staubach Co.'s retail division to head up a developing investment sales operation.

Cawley admits he is hitting hard at competitors' ranks and he plans to continue. "When I find someone I really respect, I get them as soon as I can because when you've got a quality person, the rest can take care of itself," Cawley tells GlobeSt.com. In the past year, Cawley has brought 25 to 30 people on board. "I'm chasing a lot more," he says. "I think I'm going to keep surprising everyone." The combined operations' team now numbers 100.

Cawley Wilcox is negotiating for a key hire in Denver, where it plans to open an office in the fourth quarter. In 2002, offices will be launched in Atlanta and Boston, says Cawley, who already has offices in California and Illinois. "We're going where the rapid growth, high-tech companies are," he says of his rollout strategy.

Cawley says Dixon is the stabilizing factor for the newly formed Cawley Wilcox Cos. Since that hire, Cawley says "we are being perceived by people differently. As we bring the David Homshers and Dan Polanchycks (former top producer for Henry S. Miller Commercial) on board, there's going to be people to help our clients." Cawley says Dixon's hire also has made it easier to recruit from within the Dallas-Ft. Worth commercial real estate community.

Cawley is planning to take the next couple of quarters to let the team settle in and adjust to the company culture. But, he doesn't plan to stop courting the competition. "We will continue to grow and build more relationships .. and bring more talent to the firm," he says. Part of his recruiting success, says Cawley, is rooted in the fact that 80% of the team are salaried members, taking the historical transaction focus out of client relationships.

Homsher says he had wanted to get back into corporate real estate and the Cawley platform had met his expectations. In addition to 2-1/2 years at Archon, he spent seven years in the real estate department at RealPage. At Cawley, Homsher is focusing on surplus corporate real estate and sophisticated financing for corporate real estate clients. "I feel the company is positioned ahead of the competition from the service offering perspective," says Homsher.

In 1998, Cawley's team completed 900 leases in 38 markets. He expects to do that and more this year with the All-Star lineup that he's assembled. The target market is companies looking for multi-market rollouts as well as specific market expansions, says Cawley. In the past three to five years, Cawley's operation has grown 40%.