Two Boise brokers ally with NAI Global

Just six months into operation as an independent commercial real estate brokerage, NAI Select principals Ben Kneadler and Mike Erkmann flew off to Spokane the first week of November for the first regional meeting of the nine Pacific Northwest NAI offices between Reno and Vancouver, B.C.

Erkmann and Kneadler say they are primed to play the local, regional, national and global market with the Select Commercial Property Services office they acquired in April. They also joined New York-based NAI Global, the nation’s fourth-largest commercial real estate company. NAI Global has 200 offices in 45 states and 400-plus offices worldwide, and renamed their office NAI Select.

Boise is the first Idaho-based office for NAI Global, though a Spokane NAI office has a satellite office in Coeur d’Alene. Idaho was the 45th state for NAI Global, which has offices on every continent except Antarctica.

“We try to be everywhere where there is commercial brokerage activity,” NAI Global President Jay Olshonsky told the Idaho Business Review from his New York corporate office. “We identify all markets that are sizable enough, also secondary and tertiary markets.”

Boise, Bend and Portland are NAI newcomers, coming on board just as six other Pacific Northwest NAI offices in summer decided to establish a regional group.

“Our core business is in this region,” Erkmann said. “Spokane money is looking here … . We’re sharing our books and the deals we are working on.”

Kneadler said collaborating regionally makes sense as retail clients working with one broker frequently are interested in opening in neighboring states.

NAI Select already has had the national NAI network work in their favor. Another NAI Select agent had a southern California client awaiting a property sale in a 1031 exchange – where a new property can be bought with capital gains taxes deferred – with intentions to reinvest in the Treasure Valley.

“He had to cancel because his sale fell through,” Kneadler said. “We called the NAI office in San Diego and he found a buyer for our client.”

Both left Mark Bottles Real Estate, where Erkmann worked 10 years and Kneadler 15 years, to create one of the few full-service commercial real estate firms in the Treasure Valley offering brokerage, property management and asset management. While at Bottles, they collaborated frequently with Select Commercial Properties owners Scott and Linda Cockerham.

They bought the Cockerham’s property management firm and added brokerage services. NAI Select now has 14 employees, five commercial real estate agents and nine property management agents. The company manages 2 million square feet, mostly in the Treasure Valley with a few properties in Twin Falls and Arizona.

NAI Select enters a Treasure Valley commercial real estate market with numerous large and small brokerages.

“There’s plenty of work to go around,” Kneadler said. “The full-service aspect is the biggest piece. You can offer more to the cient and customer. Investors nationwide are looking at our market. Even as a small firm, we can deliver results at the level of a national brokerage but with local expertise.”

“I want to build people, a culture, build something bigger than us,” Erkmann said. “We don’t want to build a brokerage. We want to build a team.”

Erkmann and Kneadler caught the attention of NAI Global as the international firm scouted the Treasure Valley earlier this year to assess the market and potential brokers to open a local NAI office.

“The biggest thing was their energy and drive, experience and the drive to do it,” Olshonsky said. “They wanted to be involved in the Pacific Northwest region. They want to be involved in the global community.”

Note: This story was updated at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 6 with changes on how long Mike Erkmann and Ben Kneadler worked at their prior jobs and when they joined NAI Global.