by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
When a company like Coldwell Banker Commercial Benchmark is looking to expand its business regionally, changes need to be made.
Company President Nick Nicholson is putting his efforts into expanding the company, while his son, Colin, is holding down the fort at the office.
“We are presently in planning and negotiation relative to our future, including expansion opportunities,” said Nick. “There is a possibility that my role with change to that of the overall team leader with Colin moving up to take the slot of sales manager/COO of our Jacksonville office, although I hasten to add this is not firm at this point.”
Currently, Colin is an agent, Nick is the president and Kelly Bush is the CFO.
Colin is responsible for looking at reports and strategic initiatives, assisting with marketing of company, assisting with listing presentations and meeting with prospective clients.
He has been with the company for four years after 19 years in the sporting goods business.
He said it was a natural progression to go into real estate.
“I sold my company in 2004,” he said. “My mother and father are both in real estate and it’s something I’ve been involved in. I’ve owned commercial real estate, I’ve leased commercial real estate and sold commercial real estate.”
The company is looking to open an Ocala office and Nick has been very involved in making that happen.
“We are on hold with the Ocala office because we haven’t found that perfect professional to represent us there,” said Nick. “We believe there is a need for a top-flight commercial brokerage company in Ocala due to its steady growth and because it is presently under-represented.”
Though residential real estate has been hit hard by the economy, commercial real estate is doing well, they say.
“It’s definitely not as bleak as residential,” said Colin. “There are still a lot of transactions. We’ve never had a down year. The users of commercial real estate are still as active as they were prior to the economic downturn that we’ve had.
“Small users that are start-ups are having more difficult time getting money. I haven’t had any deals just go away because someone just didn’t want to do a deal in Jacksonville. I think Jacksonville is fairly insulated because of how strong the economy is with the military and the ports exploding. Regionally, I think Jacksonville is positioned in the right place because of all of its assets.
“Deals that normally would have taken 90 days or more to close are now taking 120 or 150 days, but we have more deals,” said Colin.
Nick believes that Jacksonville and Northeast Florida will continue to grow.
“We have a strong business community, we are not limited to a single industry and we are not tied to tourism like our neighbors in Orlando,” said Nick. “We have strong, positive political leaders. We have the Mayo Clinic, the PGA Tour, the Jaguars, the port, the ocean, the river and two very fine universities. What’s wrong with that picture? Again, nothing.”