January 8, 2009 – The Kansas City Business Journal – United Country Auction Services, based in Kansas City, has aligned with Colliers International to provide accelerated transaction services to commercial real estate clients, the companies said Thursday.

United Country Auction Services is a division of United Country Real Estate Inc., which has headquarters at 2820 N.W. Barry Road. Financial terms of what was called “a strategic alliance” with Colliers International were not disclosed.

According to a release Thursday from the parties, accelerated marketing of commercial real estate involves setting a specific date for the sale of an asset and completing a saturation marketing effort prior to that date. Accelerated marketing events generally are completed through an auction or sealed-bid process.

“It’s likely that a large number of commercial assets nationwide will need to be sold in the next 12 months, and auctions are an ideal solution when seller requirements dictate, …” Patrick Duffy, chairman of Colliers International’s National Retail Group, said in the release. “We believe combining the resources of our two organizations creates a unique opportunity for clients to realize current market value in a predictable time frame, so they can clean out their balance sheets, adjust their commercial real estate portfolios and turn their attention back to their core business.”

Colliers International is a global affiliation of independently owned commercial real estate firms with 11,000 employees in 293 offices in 61 countries.

United Country Real Estate is the largest integrated real estate and auction company in the United States and the only national franchise system specializing in small rural towns and cities.

“With 675 offices, 4,000 agents and more than 140 dedicated, experienced auction professionals, United Country brings the support platform, accelerated marketing and auction expertise to this effort,” Mike Jones, president of United Country Auction Services, said in the release.

While auctions have been utilized routinely for unique luxury properties, farm and ranch land, fine art and collector automobiles, their use in commercial real estate transactions waned following the Resolution Trust Corp. disposition market of the late 1980s and early 1990s. In recent years, however, the expediency and effectiveness of this sales and marketing method has reignited the popularity of auctions in commercial real estate sales.

In 2007, $15.7 billion of commercial and industrial real estate was sold via the auction method of marketing, the release said.