Colliers Meredith & Grew Changes Name to Colliers International

BOSTON—Some 120 years after becoming a fixture on New England’s commercial real estate landscape, the Meredith & Grew name is being dropped from the firm’s moniker, Colliers Meredith & Grew officials announced Wednesday during the firm’s annual market forecast. The entity whose corporate roots in the Hub date to 1875 when founded by J. Morris Meredith (joined by Edward Wigglesworth Grew in 1891) will now become Colliers International, it was revealed at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center before a crowd of more than eight hundred on hand for the popular event, the firm’s 32nd such program.

To some observers, the change was inevitable in an era of flashy branding, and the Colliers name has become a global force in the new millennium that the company is eager to flex against such giants as CB Richard Ellis, Cushman & Wakefield and Jones Lang LaSalle, all with strong anchors in Boston. Colliers International today has 480 offices and 15,000 employees in its worldwide web, having grown exponentially from its original founding in the 1970’s. The Colliers union with Meredith & Grew in late 2006 gave Colliers International a base back in the city after ending a long affiliation with JLL’s regional predecessor, Spaulding & Slye. Another venerable name, Spaulding & Slye disappeared from the local landscape when consumed by JLL in 2005.

Apprised of the Meredith & Grew change, one veteran Boston broker termed the news “huge” for the local CRE scene, but had a more nostalgic reaction as well. “It’s really sad,” says the broker who insists the vintage cache should have been recognized. “It was a great name.”

In passing the title torch, Colliers International is going all out, even engaging Boston’s Prudential Tower to display the company’s colors of blue, orange and red last night against the towering Back Bay structure. That fit in well with the keynote speaker of the annual program being Douglas Linde from Boston Properties, hometown owners of the Prudential Center. Colliers International also launched a new slogan, “Accelerating Success,” at the event.