Former Colliers senior level advisers start commercial real estate brokerage firm

Former Colliers senior level advisers start commercial real estate brokerage firm

CASCADE TOWNSHIP — A group of top leadership staff at Colliers International’s West Michigan office have launched a new commercial real estate brokerage firm. 

The newly created Advantage Commercial Real Estate Services LLC is located at 1575 Arboretum Drive SE in the Watermark Tech Office Park in Cascade Township just east of Grand Rapids. Ten senior commercial real estate professionals along with support staff will initially launch the firm, which is focused on brokerage services in office, investment sales, vacant land, site selection, multi-family, retail and industrial properties.

Members of the new firm are all former Colliers International staff: Mark Ansara, John Kuiper, Tim Van Noord, David Rapp, Duke Suwyn, Steve Marcusse, Michael Visser, Gary Albrecht, Trent Wieringa and Mike Murray. The team’s experience includes thousands of completed transactions representing more than $2 billion in deal volume.

“There is no animosity with Colliers International, we’re just excited to be part of a new entrepreneurial opportunity like this,” said Ansara, managing principal and senior vice president of retail at the new firm. Ansara was formerly the vice president of Colliers International’s West Michigan office.

Colliers International, headquartered in Toronto, has about 15,000 employees in more than 400 offices in 68 countries.

Creating the new firm will help service clients and be more creative and nimble to help with real estate challenges, said Kuiper, Advantage Commercial Real Estate Services’ CEO and industrial adviser.  

“Real estate is definitely local but our reach will not be limited to Grand Rapids,” Kuiper said. “We fully intend to continue to transact across North America. This gives us the ability to come together and have common ownership in something we’re connected to. We’re super excited to be owned and operating out of West Michigan.”

The firm plans to add additional advisers to the team throughout 2021.

“We look forward to a number of opportunities in the coming year, including the creation of a property management division,” Ansara said. “As we continue to grow, our goal is to establish a permanent location in downtown Grand Rapids, where we will continue to invest locally.”