7 minute read
Colliers Property Focus
A NEW CHAPTER
Gavin Bishop has a long string of achievements to his name after more than two decades with Colliers. Recently appointed Colliers’ new Managing Director (Industrial) & Head of Industrial Capital Markets Australia, he looks back on his career to date and forward to the opportunities that lie ahead.
Gavin Bishop, Managing Director (Industrial) & Head of Industrial Capital Markets Australia, is a Colliers man through-and-through. While studying at Western Sydney University in the late 1990s, Gavin was selected for Colliers’ scholarship program for promising talent.
The real estate titan liked what it saw, and the organisation and Gavin never looked back – he has worked there for more than 22 years and was recently promoted to head the Colliers national industrial team.
After exploring several different areas of real estate early on, he says he found his true passion within the industrial space.
“I remember getting the opportunity to work as part of our South Sydney office’s industrial team – and that’s where my passion really took off,” he says. “Working as a junior operator in the strata market, I started to get my bearings on working with investors and occupiers as well as understanding different businesses and their key drivers.”
Having found his groove in industrial property, Gavin went from strength to strength working at – and eventually running – several different offices. He says he was present at a fortunate time where new industrial opportunities were springing up as new infrastructure was
Gavin Bishop, Managing Director, Industrial | Head of Industrial Capital Markets Australia at Colliers. Understanding an organisation and its people’s needs at all levels is key to understanding industrial real estate at Colliers.
developed. Perhaps the key skill he has learned along the way, he says, is the importance of great relationships – with occupiers, businesses, private investors, institutional investors, and developers.
Doubtless part of his skill for relationships is that he is reluctant to tout his own achievements – instead underscoring the work of his team and his great fortune in working with talented people. But his achievements do in fact speak for themselves. His public resume notes that he and his team have sold 24 of all 34 industrial portfolios in Australia over the last six years. Among these sales were the AMP Portfolio ($105 million), the J.P. Morgan Portfolio ($250 million), the Altis Portfolio ($342.5 million), the Qantas Portfolio ($802 million), and the GIC/Australand Portfolio ($1.073 billion).
This is just a small snapshot of an unusually impressive career. Compiling a full list of his career highlights would surely take several
pages of this magazine.
Gavin says that each sale and project has been meaningful for him in its own way, but he singles out the recent completion of the Qantas Portfolio in South Sydney for special attention. The way he speaks about this deal is a reminder that it’s not just a big numbers game – it’s about what the deal means for seller and buyer on a personal level.
“The Qantas Portfolio was very meaningful to me,” he says. “It was one of the largest Sydney-centric portfolios to ever trade, and we sold it to LOGOS, which is a very good client of ours and with whom we’ve built a wonderful relationship over the years.
“But it wasn’t just the size of the deal that really made an impression on me, it was at least as much about what it meant for Qantas. Given the impact of COVID-19 and its effect on travel, it had been a very difficult time for airlines generally – through no fault of their own. What the $802 million sale meant for Qantas was an injection for their business that allowed them to keep investing, to buy and maintain aircrafts, and to keep more people employed throughout the crisis.
“Qantas is a national icon and employs and supports the livelihoods of countless hard-working Australians. To have played a small part in getting them the best deal – a deal that would really help them and their people during a difficult period – was something that really left an impression on me.”
A NEW JOURNEY
Yet despite having fit several careers’ worth of achievements into only two decades, Gavin certainly has no intention of resting on his laurels. He’s squarely focused on the new opportunities that come with his new role.
“I was very fortunate in being selected to replace Malcolm Tyson – now CEO of Colliers in Australia – who was an outstanding Managing Director of our industrial business,” he says. “In addition to that role, I’m also still head of industrial capital markets for the business. And I think that having the combined role will be a terrific opportunity to add a lot of value to our clients and into our national industrial team. There are some great potential synergies to be explored by working in the general brokerage market at the same time as the national capital markets business. My goal is to really grow the business and make sure we’re very well connected in a holistic fashion so we can provide the best service to our clients on both the investment side and the general brokerage side, too.”
Speaking of his vision for the business as he starts out in his new role, Gavin says that he wants Colliers to be known as the number one industrial agency business in the country. But just as importantly, he says he wants to lead and be part of a team “that everyone can be proud of”.
“We have great collaboration, we have great trust, and we are very high performing,” he says. “So, I’m lucky to be leading a team that already has such a strong culture. I want to keep building on that. I want us to be known as a team where we share in everyone’s success – from the junior operators right up to the senior members. Obviously, I want us to be known as the best – but I also want us to be proud of the work we do and have fun doing it.”
Needless to say, 2022 is off to a strong start for Gavin and his team. He notes that in the first quarter for 2022 there are more than $400 million in assets coming to market in Melbourne, close to $450 million in Sydney, and nearly $120 million in Brisbane.
“And that’s just on the investment market side,” he adds. “We are also controlling a lot of leasing mandates, and the team is involved in selling a lot of major sites right across the country. So, we really want to connect those dots, pick up those listings, and bring the inquiries along. I think 2022 will be a very strong year for us.”
THE NEXT GENERATION
Part of ensuring the team’s long-term success is finding and encouraging the next generation of talent – because people and relationships are the essential building blocks of a strong business, Gavin says.
To that end, he is big on building up those who are just starting out their careers in industrial real estate – and real estate more broadly. Having started out in the scholarship program and working to the top of the organisation, he is ideally placed to offer advice to young professionals, and so MHD asked him what advice he would give to a young Gavin from his perspective after two decades-plus at Colliers.
“If I could give one piece of advice it would simply be to find a part of the business that you’re passionate about. Real estate is very diverse and looking back, although I tried a number of things early on – and those experiences gave me good grounding – ultimately many of them just weren’t for me. Once you find that passion, focus all your energy and attention on it.
“Also, you must always keep in mind that real estate is a relationship business. Always treat people the way you want to be treated, work hard, and you’ll build great relationships that will stand you in good stead. And remember to have fun! I’ve had a lot of fun during my career. Every day is a new and exciting chapter. Speaking for myself, I’ve been at Colliers for more than two decades, but I’m as excited for this new phase of my career as I’ve ever been.” ■
