Colliers Hires Form New MF Platform

DALLAS-In a bid to be more of a force in the extremely competitive multifamily market throughout Texas, Colliers International North Texas has brought on board Bob Helterbran and Mark Glen Freeman, both of whom will operate out of the company's local office. Additionally, the two partners are teaming with Colliers Houston-based principal Teresa Guidotti Lowery to form the Colliers Texas Multi-Family Group.

In an interview with GlobeSt.com, Helterbran and Freeman say many factors brought the two of them together to work with Lowery at Colliers. One factor was the opportunity to work with David Pinsel, Colliers' North Texas Regional Managing Director. Another factor was the opportunity to work with one another again.

"Bob and I had worked together at Transwestern; we spent about three years together," Freeman says. "That was a large part of it; we wanted to become a team again. We worked well together."

Helterbran left Transwestern to join Grubb & Ellis as senior vice president in that company's Investment Service Group – Multifamily, and remained with the company when Grubb & Ellis was acquired by Newmark Knight Frank in 2012. Meanwhile Freeman stayed at Transwestern as a senior vice president with that company's Multifamily Investment Sales division. Lowery, meanwhile, has been with Colliers for more than 12 years, and served as the 2013 National Multifamily Director.

The Colliers culture was also enticing to the duo. "One of the things we're seeing at Colliers is a commitment to growth," Freeman observes. Also appealing was the resources – both national and international – which would be available, he went on to say.

"To win business in this marketplace, a team approach is critical," Helterbran adds. "The platform I had while at Transwestern was a team approach, and we were successful there."

Furthermore, teaming with Lowery made sense to Freeman and Helterbran because of the extremely active Texas multifamily market. "It's a great seller's market," Helterbran comments. "There's a tremendous amount of capital chasing deals, and interest rates are still favorable." Being backed by Colliers new multifamily platform, "we felt like we could get a good share of that business," Helterbran says.