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New Year, new leadership: Mark Renzoni is the new president and CEO of CBRE Ltd in Canada. (We may still be writing 2013 on our cheques, but Mark is still writing COO.)  Mark became COO in 2012 and had been based out of Vancouver, where he also led the company's B.C. operations. He's been with the company for 25 years. Former CEO Stefan Ciotlos will stay, focusing on “key strategic growth opportunities.” Bisnow will be sitting down with Mark in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned.  Company chairman John O'Bryan tells us Mark's experience encompasses all property types and covers a large swath of the country. “He was a big part of CBRE's expansion in Western Canada,” John tells us. The Vancouver office has been one of the top-performing CBRE hubs in the Americas, adds John (snapped with colleague Ross Moore). |
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Colliers Beefs Up Management Team On the topic of new hires, Brian Kriter is now part of Colliers' Canadian leadership team. He was with Cushman & Wakefield for 10 years, most recently as managing director of biz dev. That was a Toronto-based role, where now, as national SVP of business development, he'll cover the country. (If our 8-year-old self can offer some advice, we suggest touring this great land in an RV.) Brian tells us his role will continue to focus on building and maintaining relationships with senior executives at large companies. “I meet people, build a relationship, understand their needs across service lines (appraisal, brokerage, investment, property tax, etc.), share relevant examples of how we're helping other companies, then make sure we have the right team assembled to execute,” he says. |
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How To Do Both? We keep reading about two different trends: consolidation—doing more with less space—and employee health/well-being in order to obtain and retain top talent. We asked JLL SVP Norm Taylor is either is going to give. History shows that "as the economy slumps, costs trump people/culture,” he tells us. The impact of technology on workplace layout and strategies for corporations will play a big role in striking a balance. He's also focusing on more sublease opportunities coming to market with a widening gap between head-lease and sub-lease rates. (Norm is pictured with colleague Scott MacDonald holding a Skytrain car, which is apparently heavier than it looks. The image was taken after JLL released their Rapid Transit Index.)
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False Creek an Atypical Case Study |
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 First Capital Realty's $46M acquisition of the retail component of False Creek Village, which we reported on before Christmas, is an atypical case study of where the company sees itself growing across the country going in 2014. EVP and CFO Karen Weaver tells us "It's rare where we find those types of assets...that we want to own because it's the right addition to our portfolio in terms of quality and location. These kind of assets rarely trade," she says. First Capital's core business is grocery-anchored urban shopping centres. |
 Their concentration in terms of investment and growth is in intensifying existing assets in part by recycling capital by disposing of assets in other markets. Which is the same as saying that the company has nothing else that is imminent in terms of acquisitions in the city. "Vancouver is a very interesting market, difficult to make money in," Karen tells us. First Capital first entered the Vancouver market 10 years ago (they now own 164 properties in seven urban markets). "But we told ourselves if we want to be a Canadian company we wanted to be there. |
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