"Minneapolis has always been a target," Rob Bagguley, presidentof Transwestern's Midwest region, tells GlobeSt.com. "It's thesecond-largest marketplace in the region. We really see the benefitof Equity's skill set, it's a great opportunity."

Mike Salmen, an Equity partner, says the merger should bring inmore business. "We are primarily a local business with a number ofinstitutional clients," Salmen tells GlobeSt.com. "However, wemissed on numerous opportunities. Where some institutional clientswere looking for service providers, because we were a localcompany, we didn't have a national platform and nationalrelationship, and we were overlooked."

Salmen tells GlobeSt.com that just with the build-uprelationship with Transwestern, Equity was able to acquire twomarketing and leasing contracts with Behringer Harvard, aDallas-based REIT, to handle the Minnesota Center in Bloomington,MN and One Financial Plaza in Minneapolis. "That's 650,000 sftotal," Salmen says. "We wouldn't have won them without theTranswestern connection."