Colliers International Hires Former CBRE Vice President
By Christina sturdivant-Sani September 26, 2018 5:11 pm
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Global real estate services firm Colliers International Group has hired a former CBRE vice president, Michael Blunt, as an executive vice president, Commercial Observer has learned. He began the position on September 17 at the firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
Blunt brings to Colliers more than 23 years of experience specializing in the investment sales and recapitalization of office and industrial properties, per a Colliers press release. Over the course of his career, he has closed over $10 billion in transactions and worked with various clients including private equity investors, REITs, lenders, special servicers and corporations.
At CBRE, Blunt focused primarily on investment sales in the D.C. region. He left his position as a senior vice president in March 2017 to spend a year of “uninterrupted time” with his family, he told CO. CBRE did not respond to Commercial Observer’s request regarding Blunt’s departure.
During Blunt’s hiatus from working in the industry, he still followed it closely. “I was impressed with the strength that Colliers was showing, particularly in D.C.,” he said, noting Colliers’ focus on expanding its investment sales platform, recruiting a “top tier tenant rep team” and delivering “first class research and analytics.”
In the D.C. office, he joins Kate Howarth, previously a managing director at H&R Retail, who Colliers recently hired as senior vice president of retail investment sales.
“Hiring elite talent like Michael and Kate in this incredibly competitive market is more proof that Colliers is attracting the finest professionals in the industry,” said David Amsterdam, Colliers’ president of investments and leasing in the eastern region, in a prepared statement. “We know their additions will help us continue to increase our market share and will provide invaluable experience to our growing number of D.C. professionals and clients.”
Blunt will focus on facilitating institutional investment sales opportunities in the region, predominantly in D.C.’s “competitive downtown submarket,” per the release.
“There are a lot of talented people [at Colliers] who have had success and I’m just looking forward to augmenting what’s already been established,” he said.
