CBRE Grabs PKF in The True North
CBRE Group’s presence in the hospitality services arena gets a big boost with its latest acquisition.
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor
Bill Stone, CBRE Hotels
CBRE Group Inc.’s presence in the hospitality services arena gets a big boost with the commercial real estate services firm’s acquisition of PKF Consulting Inc., a top advisory, consulting and research firm focusing on the Canadian hospitality and tourism industries.
PKF Canada has a notable presence in the Canadian hospitality sector, having provided advisory services for assets totaling more than $4 billion over the last four years. CBRE has its reasons for making such a big move north of the border.
“Canadian hotels appeal to a broad range of investors and conditions are producing near-record pricing and investment volumes. CBRE’s enhanced service offering bridges the divide between the dynamics of hotel operations and physical real estate, and will allow us to better guide our clients in this very active sector,” Bill Stone, executive vice president for CBRE Hotels in Canada, told Commercial Property Executive.
On the Canadian hospitality scene since 1970, PKF Canada plies its trade through offices in Toronto and Vancouver. The firm accommodates a variety of clients, ranging from hotel owners and operators to real estate developers and investors to product and service providers to the industry. And its list of services is even longer, encompassing market and economic feasibility studies, real estate appraisals, operational reviews, asset management, management contract negotiations and acquisition due diligence.
PKF Canada’s cracker-jack talent team, spearheaded by founders David Larone and Brian Stanford ,will join CBRE’s hospitality division, CBRE Hotels, and the Canadian services firm’s market research data and analysis will be folded into CBRE’s larger PKF research platform.
That’s progress. CBRE’s acquisition of PKF Canada marks another major step in the firm’s campaign to become the top global intermediary in hospitality services, transpiring just over one year after its purchase of PKF Consulting USA and its research affiliate, PKF Hospitality Research L.L.C. Now, CBRE can check North America off its list.
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