Flight to Quality Defines R7 Merger

TORRANCE, CA-Companies and customers will flock to businesses where the quality is greatest, Stan Yoshihara, newly appointed principal and managing director of Avison Young's Southern California asset-services business, tells GlobeSt.com. This philosophy is one of the reasons why Yoshihara feels the recent merger between his firm R7 Real Estate Inc. and Avison Young makes sense.

As GlobeSt.com recently reported, Toronto-based Avison Young has acquired the assets of R7 Real Estate, a locally based real estate property-management firm. The purchase further expands the Canadian company's business-line coverage in Los Angeles as 21 employees are added to the firm's L.A.-area operations from R7. Yoshihara will focus on building Avison young's management and agency-leasing business in Southern California, as well as working to ensure clients are provided best-in-class services.

“I didn't plan on any of this happening so soon,” says Yoshihara about the merger. “I didn't think I'd find a firm with the same core philosophies. But Avison Young is different from most big firms. They're very outward facing, you have to be really on your feet, creative, flexible, turn on a dime and customize for your client. That's what we are, and they have that same core philosophy. I thought, if I'm going to go somewhere and have much larger resources and capabilities, this would be the one, and my partners felt the same way.”

The fact that Avison Young is still privately held and principal based so that all the key employees have a role in decision making—not just the C-suite—differentiates the firm from other large firms, Yoshihara adds. “Decision making can be done so much quickly without the structure and red tape. Avison Young says they're a principal-based company, and once you start talking to all the people there, you realize that they actually mean it. I never got answers so quickly on key decisions—within 24 hours. For your clients, that's when it becomes critical.”

Yoshihara says with the merger, he expects his focus to be “more of the same because it's a really good match. Philosophically and culturally, we fit. The biggest change will be the greater reach with all the national and international resources.”

More strategic consolidation is one of the overall trends that Yoshihara is seeing in the property- management arena. “Like what just happened between Avison and ourselves, no matter where you are, who you are and what you do, you will always have a flight to quality. Companies with best practices become successful, and your consumer will always find quality. If you can do it better than everybody else, with caring and passion, you'll get the business. It's one thing that doesn't change over time.” Having more capital in the market also makes it easier for companies to strategically buy other companies or merge with them, he concludes.