Cassidy Turley: DC's Challenger Brand

WASHINGTON, DC-As ubiquitous as its presence is in the local DC commercial real estate community, it is easy to forget that Cassidy Turley launched in 2008 as a union of four former Colliers affiliates that were joined by four other regional firms in March 2010 to rebrand as Cassidy Turley.

Cassidy Turley already ranks fifth in the 2013 edition of the Lipsey Co.'s annual survey of the top 25 commercial real estate brands. Ahead of it in the rankings are such household names as CBRE—which boasts 10 times as many employees globally—and Jones Lang LaSalle, but while it's keeping pace with the top names in terms of industry perception, it doesn't vie with them for sheer scale. Nor, as the company's recent profile in Real Estate Forum makes clear, do its key executives intend it to.

"I believe there's more demand for what we do than there is capacity for our industry to provide it," CEO Joe Stettinius tells Real Estate Forum. "There's plenty of opportunity for top-tier talent, top-tier solutions and top-tier services in our business. We've done a great job of aligning the right people with the right opportunities to drive that solution for clients, and we've been able to do that in a nimble and entrepreneurial way that allows us to be truly innovative. That innovation could be around technology, social media marketing or just a fresh approach to old problems.”

A bigger trend, Stettinius says, is that “there's a generational shift in the workplace. While legacy brands in many industries continue to be successful, you look at the impact Under Armour has had on Nike, or Whole Foods on Safeway or even Apple on Microsoft. As the real estate industry matures, it's intuitive to see a similar challenger brand that provides legacy services in a fresh, innovative way that distinguishes us from some of our competition.” Accordingly, says Stettinius, "We don't believe we have to have a presence in every single market in America or globally. What we need to have is a plan to provide best-in-class services in every market where our clients would like to have a presence.” He adds that as the domestic economy revives, Cassidy Turley's clients are looking for "more resources to address the opportunities that the recovery is presenting to them. Because we haven't been hampered by legacy debts acquired in the recession, our ability to create a platform that can help them exploit those opportunities is very high."

Stay tuned for part 2, where Real Estate Forum delves deeper into Cassidy Turley's plans to become not the biggest – but the best commercial real estate company in the industry.