CBRE Retail Emerges Stronger From Merger
After its merger with Trammell Crow Company, CB Richard Ellis retail services makes gains in people and markets.
Interview by Randall Shearin

Buono

CB Richard Ellis’s recent merger with Trammell Crow Company has brought the company even more retail expertise. In addition to more brokers, the merger also brings more business. Just before the merger, we interviewed CBRE’s retail chief, Anthony Buono, for an article in our January issue. Now, we follow up with him to find out how the merger has changed retail at CBRE.

SCB: What strengths has CBRE gained from the merger with Trammell Crow?

Buono: The result of the merger wasn’t primarily about adding more people but about adding new approaches that can further enhance how we serve clients. From a corporate services standpoint, we added new clients to our business and a lot of good people who are practitioners of the corporate services approach to retail. Bank of America is one client; we are doing all of their work in the eastern part of the U.S. That was a Trammell Crow Company client and it’s now a CBRE client. I am amazed at the amount of great work that the Trammell Crow people have brought to the table. There is a lot of intellectual capital.

SCB: Are there market strengths as well?

Buono: Yes. We have really gained in Texas. We now have 55 retail brokerage professionals in Texas. In Houston and Dallas-Ft. Worth, we have the  largest concentration of quality retail experts. Our practice in Texas is now three times the quality of what it was pre-merger. Denver is another market that has really improved because of the merger. Pat McHenry is a key leader our practice there. Reno, Nevada, is another market. We have the Number 1 retail broker in the market, Chris Waizmann who joined from Trammell Crow. Washington, D.C., is another market where we have gained prominence with the addition of Lisa Stoddard. If I had to cherry-pick markets where the footprint got a lot stronger, those would be the ones.

SCB: Who are some of the clients that you picked up through the merger?

Buono: We have added some great clients like FedEx/Kinko’s, Chevron and T Mobile, Washington Mutual and many others.

SCB: As a whole, what do you think the merger has done for CBRE’s retail services?

Buono: When I analyzed Trammell Crow’s retail structure before the merger, their retail platform was about 10 percent the size of ours. As a result of the merger, though, our clients are already seeing much more than a 10 percent benefit because of the highly strategic approach to corporate clients. The corporate services approach to the business that they provided is something that we learned from. Internally, I can already see a lot of the Trammell Crow professionals embracing the platform and referring business back and forth in a way that they didn’t have an opportunity to do before.

SCB: What percentage of the Trammell Crow brokers joined CBRE?

Buono: On the retail side, it was about 90 percent. The great majority of people at Trammell Crow Company joined CBRE with the merger, across all property sectors.

SCB: Are there any offices that were consolidated?

Buono: We are in all the places where both firms had been before; we haven’t closed any markets. If anything, we’ve expanded our presence in most markets. There are a few places where two offices are being consolidated because of space leases, etc. In Houston, the Trammell Crow office and CBRE office will be housed together, for instance.

SCB: What are some specific results you are seeing Trammell Crow bring to CBRE’s retail services?

Buono: In Texas, what they bring is a tremendous brand. The professionals that worked for Trammell Crow and now work for CBRE in Texas have a great level of access to the real estate markets. These are deep and long-term relationships with their clients. If you are doing business in Texas, we are surely a firm that you ought to be talking to now.  Trammell Crow as a whole brings a corporate services approach that is very strategic. They help large corporations understand and rationalize their retail real estate in a highly strategic way. There is a lot of value in that. Our retail brokers are willing to embrace that.

SCB: How many employees do you have post merger? Do you want to add more?

Buono: CBRE now has 24,000 employees worldwide. We have a goal to double our retail business in the next 3 years. It is not necessary for us to add a lot of new people to double our business. In fact, we will probably have about the same number of brokers in retail with double the volume. Last year in retail, we hit our growth volume goal. That was before the merger, so we are on target.

SCB: How do you plan to get to that goal?

Buono: One of the primary ways we are getting there is by retaining the best people and hiring the best people. We just announced the addition of Mike Neal and his team in Atlanta from a boutique firm. We are also continuing to build our New York/Tri-State market presence. We have added Jayson Siano and Greg Carlan from boutique firms in the Long Island market. James Aug and David Greenman have joined in our New Jersey office. Those are all names that are well known in the retail market there.  Secondly, our Occupier/Retailer representation is expanding dramatically, and we are advising over 450 retailers, with recent cross border additions like Tesco in California and Uniqlo in New York.  Finally, our clients are seeking integrated solutions to their business, and we believe the concept of providing a broad spectrum of services and solutions are moving CBRE in the right direction.


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