As Colliers International signalled its new incarnation in Western Australia, industry stalwart Richard Cash was looking to revisit his roots at the real estate group.
Mr Cash, who stepped into the Colliers International state chief executive’s role this month, likened the appointment to ‘coming home’.
The Mount Lawley-raised property agent and manager was working as CBRE Asia Pacific’s director, large format and retail services, when it became clear Colliers WA was splitting from its international franchise.
“There had been a lot of talk about what would the former franchise business do,” Mr Cash told Business News.
“I think for WA it’s a big thing with an international agency starting its own company.”
At the start of this year, Colliers’ former WA franchise rebranded to Cygnet West, and Colliers International launched a new Perth operation.
Before his appointment, Mr Cash spent 26 years working in various sectors of the property industry, largely focusing on retail sales.
Background
Mr Cash has always been drawn to the property industry, and in particular the satisfaction of closing a deal.
He studied property at Curtin University in the mid-1990s and stepped into a job at the valuer-general’s office.
After about four years, Mr Cash progressed to NSC Corporate in Perth, which was bought by JLL in 2006, where he developed a passion for sales.
“I was in their property management team at the start, then started getting involved in the transactional side of the business,” Mr Cash said.
“That’s really where my love of sales came from.”
In 2005, he was appointed associate director of retail leasing at Colliers’ WA franchise, after a seven-month stint as a property manager at Woolworths Group.
“I had a good experience at Colliers as part of the franchise for three years, working closely with some of the more senior people on the east coast,” he said.
Mr Cash worked with Lachlan MacGillivray, who joined Colliers in 2007 and currently works as the group’s national head of retail investment services.
“I liked the way he went about his business, and he has been very successful in the industry,” Mr Cash said of Mr MacGillvray.
In 2010, Mr Cash moved on to CBRE, where he worked until late last year.
As the property industry got wind of Colliers’ plans in WA, one of the first things Mr Cash did was contact his former colleague.
“Lachlan was one of the guys I had a conversation with early on,” he said.
“There was lot of talk in the market, and having previously worked for Colliers, albeit with the franchise model in WA, I was keen to find out what opportunities that there might be for me with the new operation.
“I have got some good relationships that are probably fifteen years old now with people with Colliers on the east coast, and the executive team has been the same team for a very long time.
“When we started talking about what Perth needed and what Perth might be offering in terms of opportunity; it was almost like going home.
“I knew who I was dealing with [and was] really comfortable with their leadership styles.”
The plan
Mr Cash likens his role at Colliers to building a business from scratch, but with the backing of an international reputation.
“For me, this was the best of both worlds: start with a small team that will grow over time, but I’ve got all the support, all the processes, procedures; everything’s available to me,” he said.
“It gave me an opportunity to effectively start a business from scratch, albeit with all the horsepower of an international company.”
The company has already recruited Jemma Hutchinson and Grace Bailey from Primewest, as well as Perth valuation experts Dean Johnston and Zane Gil, who came across from Colliers’ former WA franchise.
Experienced retail and asset manager Malcolm Reed also joined as head of real estate management services in WA, and Hadley Missell was appointed director of retail leasing.
Mr Cash explained that, by the end of February, the business aimed to have 20 staff, operating out of its new 240 St Georges Terrace offices.
“It really is quite a small team [and] we’ve had some great recruitment success early on,” he said.
Mr Cash said Colliers International’s WA arm would offer a breadth of services to compete with real estate giants CBRE and JLL.
The business will operate in retail, industrial, office, health care, government, valuations and agribusiness.
