Patrick Duffy To Step Down As Colliers Houston President

Patrick Duffy will step down as president of Colliers Houston after 14 years now that the organization he calls his baby is in safe hands.

Duffy will remain at Colliers Houston as a partner when he gives the president role to Danny Rice, Colliers market leader for Western and Central Florida, on July 1. The timing of the transition was almost entirely dependent on Rice being ready to come to Houston, Duffy told Bisnow.

“The real reason it’s the right time is that it was the right time for Danny,” Duffy told Bisnow. “If I had stayed another two years, I would have been fine. And frankly, if he had said he wanted to come last year, that would have been fine, too.”

Duffy hired Rice when Rice finished college in 2007 and the two worked together for a couple of years. Rice left Colliers in 2013 to pursue several entrepreneurial real estate tech opportunities. He was chief revenue officer at Xceligent before rejoining Colliers in 2018.

Rice started as a local sales rep at Xceligent in Florida before quickly becoming regional vice president of sales for the Florida markets, then executive vice president of national accounts and, later, chief revenue officer. Rice oversaw a team of more than 100. 

“It’s hard to find somebody that you want to hand your baby to, and once I knew that I had the right person, it was really all about his timing,” Duffy said.

Rice had been running the Orlando, Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida offices for Colliers, which Duffy set up and operated for 24 years before moving to Houston to take the president role in 2009. Since Rice was doing Duffy’s old job, they’ve stayed in touch, Duffy said.

“I talked to all of my old brokers and staff people in Orlando and Tampa over the years about [whether] he was doing a good job, were they happy, etc. And they all were,” Duffy said. “They said he had the same value orientation that I’ve got, and that was my main thing.”

Culture comes first, second and third at Colliers Houston, Duffy said. 

When Duffy took the leadership role in Houston, the firm had 36 producers/advisers. The firm has now grown to be one of the largest commercial real estate companies in Southeast Texas with more than 80 advisers and 2022 transaction volume of roughly $3B, according to Colliers Houston. Revenue to the firm has increased 550% since 2009.

What Duffy is most proud of is making Colliers a great place to work, he said. 

“We won [Houston Business Journal] Best Places to Work last year, we were No. 1 in the large category, and we’ve been in the top 10 pretty much every year since we started doing it,” Duffy said. “If I had a goal, it was to create a place where people want to be. The rest of it sort of sorts itself out.”

Colliers Houston has never lost a top 50% producer to a competitor, he said. Colliers Houston has also never laid anyone off during an economic downturn, Duffy previously told Bisnow.

Duffy hopes transitioning to a broker role will give him a little more free time and flexibility. He's grown accustomed to working nine- or 10-hour days to align with schedules in all departments across the office. 

“My wife and I want to do some traveling,” Duffy said. “Whether I’m in the office, or Colorado or Italy, with the right team around me, I can keep transactions moving.”

Though Duffy will keep working, he looks back at the last four decades of his career as “a great run.”

“I don’t regret one minute of it. I’m still having fun, but I don’t want to do it forever,” Duffy said. “Finding the right person is hard, and we’re very fortunate that we don’t think we have the right guy to move the company further on, we know we do.” 

CORRECTION, MARCH 16, 2:27 C.T.: A previous version of this article incorrectly described Danny Rice's work history. The story has been updated.