A former Tricera Capital leasing director joined Colliers as South Florida market leader, marking the latest shuffle in the commercial real estate brokerage industry.
Dustin Ballard, who also was named managing director at Colliers, will oversee the brokerage’s operations, recruitment, retention and business development in South Florida, according to a Colliers news release.
Toronto-based Colliers operates across 68 countries and has annual revenue of $4.3 billion and $96 billion of assets under management, the release says. Ballard will report to Stephanie Rodriguez of Colliers.
Ballard, who has been in the industry for more than 15 years, led leasing at Miami-based Tricera from 2021 to March, his LinkedIn shows. Tricera, led by Ben Mandell, develops and invests in properties primarily in South Florida and also elsewhere in the Sunshine State and in Tennessee.
Prior to that, he was vice president of office leasing at Steve Ross’ New York-based Related Companies from 2020 to 2021 and worked in various roles in the leasing division at Los Angeles-based Hudson Pacific Properties from 2012 to 2020.
While with Related, Ballard handled leasing of office space at the firm’s 240-acre Related Santa Clara mixed-use project near Levi’s Stadium in Silicon Valley. The development includes more than 5.5 million square feet of offices, as well as apartments, hotels, retail, restaurants and parks.
South Florida has hosted a game of musical chairs among commercial real estate brokers. The shakeups came as the market deals with elevated interest rates, skyrocketing insurance costs and other headwinds. The slowdown is allowing brokers to reevaluate their options and jump to other firms, experts have said.
Also this month, top broker Donna Abood split from Avison Young to take the reins as co-lead of Savills’ Florida business. She focuses on the regions from South Florida to Tampa Bay, while Florida co-lead Mike Griffin focuses on the regions from Tampa Bay northward, as well as Naples and Fort Myers.
In other recent shuffles, Avison Young appointed Lisa Jesmer as Florida market leader in April, and Hialeah-based ViVO Real Estate acquired Doral-based Jacog Advisors and hired former State Street Realty industrial broker Frank Trelles in March.