Colliers Starts Asset Receivership Group

Burnand tells GlobeSt.com the main focus of his job will consist of working with lenders and borrowers as an officer of the court and real estate expert. "The goal is to do what's best for the asset, which might be hiring a management company, signing leases, disposing of the property, whatever the order says," he explains. "Colliers has the ideal platform to accomplish this, as they handle all the real estate sectors here."

The Phoenix office was chosen for the asset receivership group's first location and Burnand says he hopes to bring it to other offices throughout the Colliers system. He says what's been coming through so far are residential lots returning to the home builders. "We're also starting to see some multifamily going into receivership," he says. "And this will likely be followed by retail."

Burnand's three decades in real estate include experience in asset repositioning, property management, leasing, sales, receivership and development. Before coming to Colliers, Burnand spent time at Trammell Crow Co. as senior vice president with the Capital Markets Group. He also was with Cushman & Wakefield.

Burnand says he took a couple of years off following TCC's acquisition by CB Richard Ellis, but really missed the real estate business. He went to Colliers with his idea of receivership asset management, and was hired to bring it to fruition.

"We did a lot of this during the RTC days, but I think this will be bigger," he explains. "The marketplace is much larger today than it was in 1990, so we'll see larger dollar losses and more properties ending up in receivership."