Colliers has recruited a major real estate broker away from CBRE in greater Los Angeles.
Sterling Champ has been named executive vice president of Colliers in its Glendale, California, office after working as executive vice president of CBRE, according to a statement by Colliers. Champ specializes in corporate capital markets, working on sale-leaseback, build-to-suit, acquisition and disposition deals along with lease accounting, deal structuring and strategy services.
Champ has been involved in hundreds of deals adding up to more than $8 billion in value since starting in real estate in the 1980s, according to Colliers.
His clients feature some of the biggest names in real estate including MetLife, New York Life, Goldman Sachs and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, according to CBRE. He also helped form the net-lease property group at CBRE, according to the firm.
"Our momentum of attracting world-class talent continues with the addition of Sterling to our business," Jodie Poirier, executive managing director and greater Los Angeles market leader, said in the statement. "Sterling’s corporate capital markets expertise will add immediate value to our greater Los Angeles business, including our growing private equity practice."
Champ got his start in the real estate business working for Vantage Cos. in the 1980s in New Jersey. The firm ran into financial problems, and Champ and another partner bought what was left of the business and started management and leasing company Bridgewood Properties. Champ's company later was sold to Koll Real Estate Services, which CBRE bought in 1997.
In about 1999, Champ moved to Los Angeles to work for LoopNet, now a subsidiary of CoStar Group. Roughly two years later, Champ moved back to CBRE, where he has worked since.
Champ got his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in psychology and received an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania.