One of North America's largest real estate services firms is making its foray into a growing U.S. state with the addition of two new offices and about a dozen real estate professionals.
Colliers U.S., part of Toronto-based Colliers International, is expanding its brokerage services to Oklahoma with offices in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The need to have a presence in Oklahoma began across the state's southern border in Texas after demands from clients wanting services in Oklahoma, said Gil Borok, president and CEO of the firm's U.S. and Latin America operations.
"There was a need for services in Oklahoma, and we saw an opportunity to expand our strong presence in Texas," Borok told CoStar News in an exclusive interview. "We expand as opportunities present themselves, and we now have the beginnings of a real presence and will offer services in Oklahoma now like we do in many other states."
"To the extent that clients located in one geography or do business elsewhere need outposts, we will go there," Borok said, adding that there's a lot of reciprocal business to be had between Oklahoma and neighboring states like Texas.
Daniel Taylor, executive managing director of the Texas region, said the expansion to Oklahoma will help assist clients in capitalizing on the region's growth. Taylor, who sits in the firm's Dallas office, said he saw a business need for an Oklahoma presence based off client demand.
Oklahoma's population has grown recently, adding about 23,000 new residents from other states in 2023, making it the state with the 12th-highest level of net domestic migration in the United States, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In the report, officials said Oklahoma has transformed from being a so-called "brain drain" state to a "brain gain" state as new residents popped up from the western U.S. and the Great Plains.
The beginnings of Colliers' Oklahoma presence began with a net lease team of three: Vice Chairman Ken Hedrick, Vice Chairman Andrew Ragsdale and Associate Vice President Phillip Butts. More recently, Colliers added a multifamily capital markets team, including David Dirkschneider, Mike Marrara, Ryan Gorman and Ryan Chapman, as well as an industrial broker, Cole Hopper.
In all, with support services employees, Colliers now has a dozen real estate professionals working within its two Oklahoma offices. The Oklahoma City office is located at 16354 Muirfield Place in Edmond, Oklahoma, a suburb about 14 miles north of Oklahoma City. The Tulsa office sits at 8801 S. Yale Ave. The two offices are owned by Colliers, rather than affiliates, giving the firm greater control over how it grows its presence in Oklahoma, Borok said.
"When you own it, you control it and you can scale it," he added. "It sometimes makes it easier and more efficient to operate."
The Oklahoma offices are expected to work with Colliers' other offices and professionals, including those in nearby Arkansas and Kansas, expanding the global network and reach of the new team. In the United States, Colliers has roughly 6,000 professionals in 144 offices.
Borok said Colliers is actively recruiting for roles in Oklahoma to fill out its real estate services platform, with the hope of adding office, industrial, retail and multifamily executives to the team on both the landlord and tenant representation side of the business, as well as investment sales and other specialized advisory support.
"We have lots of room to grow," Borok said, adding that Colliers can afford to be opportunistic with talented executives. "Our professionals would have the ability to service clients locally, but also nationally, with there being a lot of deal flow from city to city and state to state."
The majority of new hires at Colliers come from referrals and word of mouth, with the firm offering an autonomy to brokers that can be difficult to find at the larger brokerage firms, Borok said.
"We are one of the largest firms in the world at what we do, but, of the biggest, we are the smallest, giving us an enterprising culture," Borok said.
The competition for talented real estate executives is "intense," Borok said, who characterizes Colliers as having "punched above its weight for years" in appealing to rainmakers that are also able to collaborate with peers throughout the country.
"Our goal is to continue to expand and elevate our brand, and our expansion with Oklahoma is in line with it," Borok said. "Oklahoma is a small state in terms of volume, but it's growing, and we plan to grow with the state."