Since their inception in 1995 as Paramount Properties, to the global alliance forged with Colliers International in 2010, the West Michigan group has consistently pursued integrity, innovation, excellence, and commitment with a view to creating a superior level of service for our clients. 

In 1995, Bill Bowling and Tom DeBoer established Paramount Properties. Two years later, at an SIOR conference, they realized that affiliating with Grubb & Ellis would provide them with the support they needed to give their clients a better experience, their number one priority. After joining Grubb & Ellis, they brought on Duke Suwyn, our current CEO. They were then able to add an office in Kalamazoo and an affiliate in Holland.

The Holland affiliate was established in 1987 as ‘Focus Properties’ by Kris De Pree. Kris saw a need for his expertise of the commercial and/or industrial properties in the Holland market. As business in the Holland area grew, Bill and Tom approached Kris with the possibility of becoming an affiliate of the international Grubb & Ellis organization. Since Bill and Tom exhibited the same values and ethics and utilized the same training and technology as Kris, the obvious decision was to join forces.

The Kalamazoo office was brought on to better service the south-west Michigan market. The firm was finding that the clients needed specialized market knowledge of advisors who lived and worked in the community. Thus, in 2002, the partners decided that it would benefit the organization to have an office added in Kalamazoo.

In 2006, Bill met with Ray Kisor, formerly of Commerce Realty and Management, during a trip to Washington D.C. Bill and Ray formed a partnership that would be able to provide the West Michigan market with the experience and the means of two of the best firms in commercial real estate.

Three years later, Paramount Commerce realized that their unique ability to provide superior customer service based on their current platform was not meeting the standards the partners needed to serve the local community or access continued development. The partners still had their state-of-the-art technology, but were missing the national support they desired.

The partners agreed that the best option would be to look for another organization that could provide the support and tools that would help the West Michigan advisors continue to achieve excellent customer service at its highest level.

It was at this point that Collier’s International seemed the logical partner. By leveraging the global perspective of one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the country with the local expertise of the advisors and the staff, the services that the West Michigan group knew that they would be able to provide would be outstanding.