Seasoned Commercial Real Estate Duo Joins Colliers International South Florida

With a continued focus on expanding across all disciplines and growing its South Florida capabilities, Colliers International South Florida announced the addition of commercial real estate brokers Russell Bornstein and Michael Wilson.

With nearly 60 years of combined industry experience, the team will specialize in retail and office brokerage, respectively, and bring additional value by collaborating to service clients with mixed requirements in South Florida.

“Russell and Michael have both earned a reputation for service excellence,” said Ken Krasnow, Executive Managing Director & Market Leader of Colliers International South Florida. “Bringing them on board highlights our commitment to wholistic real estate solutions. As the real estate markets in South Florida continue to develop and mature, we are continually seeing occupiers with mixed-use requirements and we are stepping up to provide market solutions and expertise as diverse as the clients and requirements we work with.”

As long-time exclusive representatives for Wells Fargo and its approximate 250 branches in Southeast Florida, Bornstein and Wilson have provided steady and strategic commercial real estate advisory to the financial services company through various mergers over their 20 year relationship, including their real estate needs after they acquired Wachovia in the largest financial institution merger on record. Additionally, they have represented clients such as Brandsmart, Regions Bank, and Chase.

Both industry veterans have been with CBRE since 2012.

Industry veteran Bornstein has been involved in the ground-floor launch of numerous national retail tenants such as Blockbuster Video, Einstein’s Bagels and Boston Chicken. His experience comes from brokering notable transactions such as the 44,000 sq. ft. Coral Gables headquarters and branch of the original BankUnited as well as the sale of Plantation Crossing Shopping Center to an entity affiliated with Beth Azor of Azor Advisory Services. Additionally, he is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and a Board Member for the Wayne Barton Study Center in Boca Raton.

On the office side, Wilson has represented major players across Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties throughout his career. He provides brokerage services to owners, landlords and occupiers of office properties, and has represented clients such as TIAA, Ernst & Young, Invesco and Morgan Stanley, among others. He is an active member within the local chapter of NAIOP, the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

“I’m excited to again work with Ken Krasnow and the professionals at Colliers. I have had the opportunity to work with several of them over the course of my career and I look forward to collaborating with them again in our shared pursuit,” added Russell Bornstein.

Bornstein holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from St. Bonaventure University and Wilson earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Pennsylvania State Unversity.