GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Coldwell Banker Commercial Nears Major Acquisition/Merger Deal

"It's in the works but most of these deals take a lot of time to complete," Webb says. His company-owned office acquired two brokerages in the past 18 months--six-year-old Duke Properties Inc. of Winter Park, not related to Duke Realty Corp. of Indianapolis; and 25-year-old Morbitzer Group of suburban Maitland, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The sales prices weren't disclosed.

Webb heads a 54-person office in Winter Park that posted $160 million in transactional volume last year, up from $126 million in 2003. The two brokerages acquired previously by Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT posted gross commission income and property management revenue of $2.1 million before the merger.

Coldwell Banker president George E. Slusser, here for the company's annual three-day Global Commercial Conference at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Kissimmee, tells GlobeSt.com Coldwell Banker nationwide grew at a 50% clip last year, a pace he would like to experience again but will settle, instead, on a 20% growth rate for 2005.

"Do I foresee a problem growing at that fast pace?" Slusser asks. "I would like to have that problem." He says he has the professional staffs at all of the company's 508 offices to continue growing on a fast track and won't have to lure big hitters from other brokerages to accomplish the task."

"We don't go after big-name brokers by offering bonuses, new cars and other products," says Slusser. "On a national scale, however, we offer equity opportunities in our company which we feel is the wave of the future because it provides the broker and the company greater returns."

For example, Slusser says, total gross commissions earned by his company's 41,000 brokers in 2003 were $224 million. Last year, the total take was $300 million. Coldwell Banker had 450 offices operating in 2003. Last year, the total rose to 508 offices. Internationally, the company has 700 associates working out offices in 27 countries.

Slusser says Coldwell Banker Commercial is the nation's largest franchisor of commercial real estate brokerage firms.

On the investment side, Slusser says he continues to see "a lot of money looking at retail and multifamily" products. "A lot of the money is coming from institutions but more private buyers are also getting involved."

Based on Coldwell Banker's data base, Slusser says Orlando, Palm Beach Fort Lauderdale were rated the top three apartment markets in the US for 2004.