| 
David Goodhue
Executive managing director and Boston market leader, Colliers International
Age: 40
Industry experience: 15 years
David Goodhue was named market leader of Colliers International Boston in January, succeeding the veteran three-part leadership team of Kevin Phelan, Tom Hynes and Jim Elcock. A Providence College graduate, Goodhue joined the firm in 2003 following a stint in sales for a security company. As a member of Colliers’ Southwest Massachusetts team, Goodhue worked on transactions across various commercial property types in the Route 128 and Interstate 495 south markets, including an acquisition of an office building for his former employer, Westwood-based CGL Electronic Security.
Q: How big of a change is the new leadership structure at Colliers Boston, replacing the three-part executive team with a single executive?
A: It’s been great for everybody. I’m thrilled and the former leadership team, Tom, Jim and Kevin, have told me how happy they are to be able to focus 100 percent on clients and other things that are important. And I’ve been dealing with vision, strategy and day-to-day operations and budgets and HR, so we’re off to a great start.
Q: How does Colliers organize its brokerage teams?
A: When I was doing brokerage, everything was team-based. In the Southwest team, we had a group of nine advisers and two support people. We covered all product types. We did a lot of landlord work, tenant work and we sold property in conjunction with the sales team. A lot of it was industrial, office, flex manufacturing. We really touched all segments of the market, which was great. When I started 14 years ago, we didn’t have a presence in those markets, so I had the benefit of growing the team both by hiring more senior people as well as bringing on younger people and training them.
Q: With your background in the Southwest market, how has the industrial market changed?
A: Industrial has become incredibly meaningful to the market, particularly in the inner suburbs. We see a lot of facilities being utilized as last-mile distribution facilities, and a lot of the industrial product was outdated in the sense that the clear heights just weren’t there. You’re seeing a lot of industrial development. We’re working on a spec building at 301 Bartlett St. in Northborough, it’s class A product that’s being leased up successfully. The obsolete product is being replaced with best-in-class industrial product. It’s been “build it, and they will come.”
Gain Access to New England Premier Source for Real Estate Data
Real estate is a moving target, but with a valuable tool like RE Records Search in your arsenal, you can get a bullseye every time. The Warren Group is New England’s premier source for timely and accurate real estate data, and RE Records Search provides valuable insight to the region’s property characteristics, tax records, sales and mortgage histories, and foreclosure information.
Q: How is Colliers’ compensation system set up to maximize the firm’s growth strategy?
A: We haven’t changed out compensation model. Some firms have gone to a salary-bonus model. We’re remained what I describe as a production or merit-based model. You’re compensated based upon your production. That being said, part of my job is to take a very entrepreneurial, merit-based compensation model and really apply to a team dynamic to it. What that means is you have to have a lot of very self-motivated people who love being in a business where you do great things and you’re compensated appropriately but creating an environment where they feel that one and one can equal three, if you really work well together as teams. And ultimately the clients benefit greatly from it.
Q: With the JLL buyout of HFF, what are the opportunities for Colliers to bolster its brokerage team?
A: We’ve got about 35 brokers currently, which will be growing for sure. We have a heavy emphasis on recruiting. With the JLL-HFF acquisition, certainly we expect there will be opportunities to recruit great talent. I’m always keeping an eye open to strengthen the teams. Areas of focus would be our downtown leasing team and investment sales group within capital markets. All of our brokers can work on any product type. We have people who have gravitated to industrial, office or done a lot of both. We’ve created a platform where if someone who’s done a lot of office sees an industrial opportunity, they’ll bring in the appropriate specialist who has done a lot of industrial work. We do have very well-rounded brokers. There’re so many properties today that can be repurposed in so many different ways. The key is having the right experts.
Q: How is Colliers trying to bring more diversity to the industry?
A: I feel strongly as an industry we’ve certainly lagged behind in diversity and inclusion. Over the past year we’ve hired 15 people of which 50 percent are, bluntly, non-white males, which is great and I’m proud to say that. Internally, I set up a women’s committee, a volunteering committee and awards committee, with the emphasis on getting everybody at the company engaged and giving everybody a voice so that decisions aren’t being made in a vacuum. I’m thrilled we got such a positive response. We got 50 different people involved, and many are focused on diversity initiatives. For our internship program, we’ll definitely be bringing in students from local schools, many of whom will have diverse backgrounds. A lot of it’s just the day-to-day discussion about diversity and inclusion in meetings, whether it’s brokerage or operations, just constantly reiterating to the team that diversity and inclusion is incredibly important to me. It’s the right thing and to deliver the best service and outcomes to our clients, we need people from diverse backgrounds.
Q: Having been through ups and downs in the real estate cycle, what are important skills for a broker when the market turns south?
A: We’ve been on a great run. All good things have to come to an end. I still very confident in the market. We’ve got so many great things going on here. When things do slow down, and they eventually will, I love the fact that we’re in Boston for all the reasons we talk about: medical, education, finance, tech, life science. You name it, it’s here, which is only going to help us when things do soften. I had the benefit that when I was young in the business, I didn’t have a ton of responsibilities. I was single, living in South Boston, I didn’t have a family and three children at that point, so that made it a bit easier and I was learning the business through that period. By the time the market started picking up again, I had several years of experience.
Goodhue’s Five Favorite TV Shows:
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Game of Thrones
- Ozark
- Sopranos
- Seinfeld
