Brokers Lindsay Hockey and Oliver Kershaw have taken their long-running partnership to Colliers International, joining the city’s second-largest commercial brokerage after a seven-year stint at Avison Young.
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Two of the best-known names in Ottawa commercial real estate have a new home.
Veteran brokers Lindsay Hockey and Oliver Kershaw have taken their long-running partnership to Colliers International, joining the city’s second-largest commercial brokerage after a seven-year stint at Avison Young.
Hockey and Kershaw, who first started working together more than a dozen years ago, assumed their new roles as senior vice-presidents in Colliers’ Ottawa office late last month.
It’s a return to familiar territory for Hockey, who launched his real estate career at Colliers in 2002 and spent six years at the firm before jumping to CBRE in 2011.
The Carleton University commerce grad said he was eager to take on a new challenge at a company he was familiar with under the leadership of his old friend, Colliers managing director Warren Wilkinson, who started in the industry around the same time as Hockey and later worked alongside him at Colliers for six years.
Hockey praised Wilkinson for assembling a “good mix” of young, up-and-coming brokers and experienced industry veterans.
“Warren and the company have been doing an incredible job recruiting young people,” he said. “That’s very, very tough in our industry right now. If you ask any of the managing directors, they’ll tell you it’s probably their No. 1 challenge. Warren seems to have figured it out.
“Oliver and I were confident that this was our best chance to integrate with a strong team with some youth and energy behind it.”
For Kershaw, the move is a chance to continue his long-standing collaboration with Hockey.
The University of Manchester alumnus began his career at CBRE, where he worked from 2006-16 and cut his teeth in the business under the mentorship of longtime real estate executive Jim Shotton, who co-founded the firm’s Ottawa brokerage in 1999.
When Hockey came on board later, he struck up a friendship with Kershaw, who was around the same age and shared similar interests, including a passion for golf. The two brokers eventually formed a business partnership that has endured to this day.
“I wanted to continue to work on files with another like-minded individual to help me to brainstorm and improve my ability to service that client network that we had built up,” Kershaw said.
“We decided to give it a shot 13 years ago and we haven’t looked back. I’ve always enjoyed being part of a team. I think it allows you to kind of bring a different perspective into meetings with two brains versus one.”
When Wilkinson was promoted to managing director seven years ago, he told OBJ he wanted to attract the “best young talent” to Colliers and expand the firm organically.
In an interview on Tuesday, he said that strategy helped the brokerage land Hockey and Kershaw.
“We saw significant opportunity in finding and building young talent within the organization, and it’s worked,” he said. “As a result, with that team’s ability, we’re now able to attract talent through acquisition.”
Back in 2016, Wilkinson said his prime objective was to grow Colliers into the city’s largest commercial brokerage. Now, with two of Ottawa’s top office-leasing specialists added to its executive suite, he thinks the top spot is within reach.
“We continue to push towards that goal, and Lindsay and Ollie are a great piece to help us accomplish that,” Wilkinson said, describing his new colleagues as “community-focused individuals” who are skilled at developing strong relationships with clients.
Hockey and Kershaw will continue to focus on office leasing, mainly representing tenants, and will also contribute in other areas when called upon, they said.
With Ottawa’s office vacancy rate hovering near record highs, it’s a challenging time for the commercial real estate industry. While Kershaw foresees “more pain” in the near future as landlords and tenants adjust to the new reality of hybrid work, he said he is “quietly optimistic” that better days are ahead.
Keshaw said tenants are taking “a bit of a cautious approach” to their real estate needs in the wake of the pandemic, with many looking to downsize as offices come up for renewal.
“But we’re seeing tenants more often than not wanting to have these conversations now,” he added. “They’ve been sitting on their hands for a couple of years; leases are expiring naturally. We are active with a lot more (clients) now.”
Kershaw also noted that brokers are seeing a “flight to quality” as tenants look to occupy smaller footprints and focus more on “amenity-type” spaces in higher-quality buildings. His longtime partner agreed.
“They’re looking for better buildings in better locations with better amenities,” Hockey said. “If you don’t have a gym, if you don’t have showers, if you don’t have good bike storage, access to food and service retail, you may just be passed over when a tenant is considering a relocation. You have to have those things.”
