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Gone from CB, Broaddus and Shaw set up their own Chicago based company, calling it Alliance Commercial, and then began contacting independent commercial real estate firms around the country in an attempt to bring others on board. Their goal: to set up a bureaucracy free corporate service company with a national reach by recruiting independent firms that were strong performers in their respective markets but were willing to take on the Alliance Commercial name and platform to create a common identity and approach to work.

So far, the companies that have joined Alliance Commercial include The Fadoir Co. in Dallas, Cambo Realty in Miami, Sinclair Properties in Boston and Best Real Estate in El Paso, Texas. Broaddus and Shaw have ambitious plans to increase that number during the next few years.

The company has targeted New York City, Denver, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Phoenix as its next additions, and Broaddus said he expects to officially add companies in those markets to the Alliance Commercial family by first quarter 2001. The company has identified 24 major markets that it believes would give it complete national coverage and expects to bring on board companies in those markets during the next several years, he added. In the meantime, a potential merger involving the El Paso office has made its future role in the company unclear, but Shaw said the company was not ready to discuss the matter yet.

Adding such a significant number of companies may require a bit more corporate structure, Shaw acknowledged though the team hopes that will not be the case.. After all, it was the rules and bureaucracy of the bigger national firms that led Broaddus and Shaw to form the smaller company they believe allows them to be more nimble in serving their clients.

In the meantime, Alliance Commercial transacts business in markets where it does not have offices by seeking out the best company in the market where it needs to do business and using the services of that company. Through that means, the company considers its reach to be even more extensive, though Shaw admits, "it's hard to quantify."

"If we're not in a particular market, like Phoenix, we can go to Phoenix, talk to people and determine who is really the best provider of that service ... on behalf of our client," said Shaw, "The client knows they're getting a single point of contact and a single process."

Indeed, Alliance Commercial will go anywhere clients take it. "We've worked all over the country. We've worked on build-to-suits in Italy. We've worked in Mexico. ... We're trying to go to China right now," Broaddus said.

A national reach is essential to attracting corporate clients, noted Shaw. "You will not win an AT&T 1 million square foot deal called John Smith Realty."

The promise of that national reach was key in attracting the other companies that became part of Alliance Commercial, too. "When I was a local company, I felt there were a lot of  opportunities ... I competed for, and even though I felt I had the best brokers in    the city on my team, the corporate client wanted to pick the national player ... because they may not be familiar with the local companies," said Brian Buell, director of the Southwest region for Alliance Commercial of former The Fadoir Co.

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