Avison Young Makes its Mark on Florida

MIAMI—Eight brokers left Flagler to open up a new office for Avision Young in Ft. Lauderdale last October. Eight months later, what does Avison look like in South Florida?

Over the past six months, Avison has doubled its property management portfolio, adding more than 2.5 million square feet. The firm has also completed more than 10 deals, been hired by a national owner that rarely outsources to third-parties, and represented the sale of an $80 million multifamily deal.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Pike Rowley, a principal in Avison Young's Fort Lauderdale office, to get the big picture and the little of the transition. Stay tuned for part two of our exclusive interview in this afternoon's Miami edition.

GlobeSt.com: You and your partners' departure from Flagler to Avison Young was big news. What made you choose this new platform and, for those not familiar with Avison Young, what can be expected?

Rowley: It's true. Nine months ago was a whirlwind as we explored discussions with several national companies to align with. However, when we looked at our core requirement of "how can we best serve our client," the choice became crystal clear.

Avison Young was a 30-year-old company in 2008, established in Canada and consisting of 300 professionals in 11 offices but with no presence in the U.S. Fast forward to today and we have 45 offices across North America, we are in every major U.S. city, and at last count have 1,200 professionals. Until we came along, there was no Florida presence.

We brought to Avison Young 30 people transacting in office, industrial, multifamily and retail asset classes conducting leasing, sales, property management and advisory services in those product types. We had reached a point in our careers where we wanted to be shareholders and partners in the company we were building wealth for, be part of the strategy decision-making for the company, and we didn't want to have to navigate through the political maze of silos and corporate profit centers to service the client effectively. We found all of that on our wish list and more at Avison Young.

GlobeSt.com: Since launching six months ago, you have remained relatively under the radar. Is this deliberate?

Rowley: Yes. We have been highly productive but strategically we felt it best to ensure we completed all tailing business and build our foundation prior to pulling back the curtain. However, the last 90 days have been spent originating and transacting new business and, to date, we have leased more than 350,000 square feet of office space, closed more than $85 million in sales transactions, and doubled our property management square footage from 3 million square feet to 6 million square feet, all without adding any new brokers. I think you would agree the view behind the curtain is impressive.

GlobeSt.com: Avison Young has a large presence in the US and Canada, but this is the first office in Florida. Should we expect continued growth in the region?

Rowley: The expansion plan is to be in every major city in Florida executing the 2 x 5 x 4 company mission. Two client types: Owners and Occupiers. Five services: leasing, sales, property management, project management and consulting. Four primary asset classes: office, industrial, retail and multifamily.

The initial phase is to acquire privately-held, local companies in each of those areas and grow brokerage and property management professionals from those platforms. We are in active negotiations with groups in several Florida markets and are ahead of our expansion schedule.

Come back this afternoon for part two of this exclusive interview.