CBRE is already the largest retail third-party provider in thecountry, but Buono tells GlobeSt.com that the company's marketshare is still small because of the fractured nature of the retailservices marketplace. Gradually, however, the retail servicessector is consolidating in the same way that the office andindustrial sectors did in an earlier era. CBRE's strategy isdesigned both to take advantage of that consolidation and to helpaffect it.

As Buono explains to GlobeSt.com, CBRE's strategy is focusing onthree goals: becoming the gold standard for retail services byhiring the best talent, representing the best retail brands andcreating a highly diversified platform. He says that thediversified platform is being designed so that the firm can do manythings or one thing for a client, whether it is manage a property,lease a property, sell a property, represent tenants, build stores,develop real estate strategies, help a client recapitalize an assetor help a developer every step of the way from finding land for aproject to developing a retail property and filling it withtenants.

As Buono explains to GlobeSt.com, retailers are expandingnationally and internationally as never before, with some companiesplanning hundreds of stories in scores of cities at one time.Expansion on this scale requires retail services firms that canoperate in many markets at one time, unlike the traditional retailboutique firms that might specialize in space in a single city.