Celebrating 20 years of Colliers shaping Hawke’s Bay

Colliers Hawke’s Bay recently marked 20 years in business and they have provided a significant contribution to the region’s property market since opening their doors.

The deals they have done have either helped create opportunities for new businesses and services to enter Hawke’s Bay or provided a new lease of life on old projects, while other transactions have proven transformational for assets that needed to be revitalised.

Colliers also sold the former Farmers building in Hastings in 2018 that is now home to Kiwibank’s contact centre and business hub, creating a number of jobs in the region.

In the same year they also sold the old Herald Tribune building that was redeveloped into the events, hospitality, office and retail precinct called Tribune.

This development has given the eastern side of the Hastings CBD a new lease of life, while retaining some of the original building due to its status as a heritage site.

In 2020, they transacted the Tomoana Food Hub processing and distribution centre that sold for $41 million, a then record for a property sale in Hawke’s Bay.

Looking back, Simon Tremain, Director of Colliers Hawke’s Bay, still remembers his pitch to operate a partner office for Colliers.

Having worked for his family named and owned real estate business in Hawke’s Bay throughout the 1990s, he wanted to grow his market share and prove he could compete with the big brands.

After purchasing a property in Havelock North at an auction run by Colliers in Wellington, Tremain met some key people that eventually led to a discussion with Mark Synnott who was the Chief Executive of Colliers at the time.

At that meeting, Tremain recalls there was some scepticism about his ability to generate enough turnover in Hawke’s Bay, but he made it clear. “I told them: ‘You give me the brand and I’ll give you the turnover’,” he says.

Colliers agreed to partner with Tremain two decades ago and the office officially marked 20 years of operations in August. They have gone from being a business with a small share of the market to a leading firm in the region that was named the Small Commercial and Industrial Office of the Year at the 2019 REINZ Awards. “Having partnered with Colliers has given us the opportunity to expose our properties on a national and international scale,” Tremain says.

One of the key people behind driving the growth of their business alongside Tremain was Cam Ward who began as a Broker in 2009 with some bold goals around doubling the office’s turnover. He managed to do so and Ward later recruited Danny Blair, who is originally from Hawke’s Bay, to join the team from Wellington in 2013 where he was working in office leasing. Ward later moved into property development.

Blair says the key to maintaining their presence in the market has been strategic recruitment of knowledge-able Brokers who are committed to the region and have a deep understanding of owners, tenants, and intricate details of properties around the area. “We are proud of the dynamic, dedicated team we have here at Colliers Hawke’s Bay,” Blair says.

“Our greatest strength is our ability to generate repeat business and we have an outstanding group of clients who have remained loyal to us over a number of years.”

Synnott, now the Executive Chairman of Colliers New Zealand, praised Tremain’s entrepreneurial spirit as a major reason why the Hawke’s Bay office has been so successful.

“Simon is incredibly ambitious and that has served him well throughout his time being associated with us. He is very well liked and trusted by his clients,” Synnott says. “Their growth mindset has flowed through the business and that has been evident through their results and expansion in their market share across the past two decades.”

The community-focused Hawke’s Bay office is now into its third year as the naming rights sponsor for the Colliers Hawke’s Bay Spring Racing Carnival, while they have also provided support for other activities.

“The Hawke’s Bay team are great for our brand and their breadth of community support would be as good as any Colliers office around the globe,” Synnott says.