June 20, 2003

Grant Street-Cushman & Wakefield alliance brings C&W back to 'Burgh

Such affiliations help midsize brokerages offer more services

Suzanne Elliott

DOWNTOWN - When Dave Lawton walked into Grant Street Associates Inc.'s Downtown office in early April, Tim Goetz felt compelled to listen.

And Mr. Goetz, A Grant Street Principle, is glad he did.

What Mr. Lawton wanted to do was talk with Mr. Goetz about having Grant Street - a Downtown commercial real estate brokerage - become an affiliate of Cushman & Wakefield, a New York-based, nationally known commercial real estate firm.

"We've had a long working relationship with Grant Street Associates," said Mr. Lawton, senior managing director of operations for Cushman & Wakefield. "Every one of their partners is a professional".

Mr. Lawton was eyeing an alliance with Grant Street as a way to re-establish a foothold in Pittsburgh. Cushman, which does business across the country, had had an office in Pittsburgh during the early 1990s, but had closed it because of economic conditions.

"(Mr. Lawton) said he was targeting Pittsburgh and asked if we would be interested in an alliance," Mr. Goetz said.

Even though it closed its local office, Cushman & Wakefield had remained active in the Pittsburgh market, often partnering with local real estate brokerages to make deals in and around the Greater Pittsburgh area. Cushman and Grant Street, for example, had worked together on 18 different assignments for clients like AG Edwards, Reliant Energy, USB Paine Webber and Siemens Westinghouse.

Last year, Cushman started an affiliate program as part of a plan to expand into secondary markets - like Pittsburgh - that were headquarters of major corporations. Because of its working relationship in the past, Grant Street seemed a logical choice.

PROGRAM SPECIFICS

How the program works is simple. The company that Cushman affiliates with will remain independently owned.

But the two companies will enter an agreement that they will work together for a specific time - usually two or three years.

Cushman will serve as a referral network and give additional resources to its partner firm. That company, in return, will work with Cushman and share leads as well.

"We kicked the idea around," Mr. Goetz said. "We liked the fee structure and our NAI contract was up for renewal."

(Grant Street joined the New York-based NAI network in October 2000 and changed its name to NAI Grant Street Associates at that time. On June 1, the company became known as Grant Street Associates, an affiliate of Cushman & Wakefield. It has a two year contract with Cushman.)

"We were not disappointed with NAI," said Jim Dawson, a Grant Street principal. "But this gives us a stronger platform. We had to spend the first five minutes of a presentation explaining who NAI was. We are still the owners of Grant Street Associates. We're just affiliates of Cushman & Wakefield."

It is not unusual for midsized, independent commercial real estate brokerages to join national real estate networks as a way to offer more services to clients, In 1999, for example, Pennsylvania Commercial Real Estate Inc. became Colliers Penn when the brokerage became an affiliate of Colliers International, a Boston-based corporation of independently owned commercial real estate firms.

"It's a great calling card for us," said Jack O'Donoghue, a Grant Street principal. "It's like playing for the Yankees."

Said Mr. Goetz: "This enhances our capabilities."

Grant Street is now one of 14 Cushman affiliates across the country. Cushman currently has affiliate locations in midsize cities like Jacksonville, Fla., Indianapolis, Memphis and Columbus, Ohio.

As part of its relationship with Cushman, Mr. Dawson said the firm will look at beefing up its corprate services division, as well as its expertise with retail and industrial real estate. Grant Street recently hired Jim Geiger, who worked in Mellon Financial Corp.'s real estate department for a number of years. Grant Street now has 10 brokers.

"We're looking at doing more strategic advisory," Mr. Dawson said.

Through its affiliation with Cushman, Grant Street will also be adding an appraiser.

"We hope to have someone on in the next two months," Mr. Goetz said. "We're just now going through the interview process."

MS. ELLIOTT may be contacted at selliott@bizjournals.com.