PGP Teams With Colliers in Phoenix

Phil Steffen, who is executive managing director of the new office, says Phoenix was a logical choice for a new operation because of the city's size and location. "It gives us a good synergy with our Southern California, Denver and Dallas offices," he tells GlobeSt.com. "It fills in the blank geographically."

Joining Steffen in the new office are appraisers Matt Stephen and Alex Esnard. Steffen's goals are to build the business to a seven-person operation within the next three years.

Long-time veteran Steffen joined PGP in 1979; a year after the company was founded, and started the Seattle, WA operations. He spent 22 years overseeing PGP's operations in the Pacific Northwest, then moved south to help the company with its Southern California offices. When the opportunity came up in Phoenix, Steffen says it provided a great opportunity for him to start something new, in a different market.

Furthermore, PGP's and Colliers' parent company First Service Corp. of Toronto has national practices that handle self-storage facilities and manufactured home parks. Steffen sees synergy in that as well. "There are 1,212 self-storage facilities, and we're aiming to appraise all of them," Steffen says. "There are 940 manufactured home parks in Arizona, and at some point, we'll appraise all of those, too."

Needless to say, PGP's appraisal and valuation will focus on other product as well, and Steffen says the area's infrastructure is outstanding, which makes it easy to get from place to place to get the work done. Furthermore, "the real estate people in this town are fantastic," he adds. "It's a great group to be part of."