Erik Foster and Mike Wilson join Avison Young in Chicago

Leading U.S. Midwest industrial investment brokers become Principals

CHICAGO, IL, May 2, 2012 /CNW/ - Michael McKiernan, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company's Chicago office, announced today that leading commercial real estate brokers Erik Foster and Mike Wilson have joined Avison Young's brokerage operations in Chicago.

Effective immediately, Foster and Wilson join Avison Young as Principals. They will continue to focus on industrial investment sales while also working on all matters pertaining to capital markets. They most recently worked together at Grubb & Ellis in Chicago.

"Erik and Mike give Avison Young's Chicago brokerage an expanded capability and expertise within our capital markets practice," comments McKiernan. "Their work ethic and energy will be tremendous assets to our firm, and will continue to be embraced by existing and new clients. Erik and Mike are true market leaders and we are thrilled to have them join our growing team. We wish them a long and successful career here at Avison Young."

Foster concentrates on providing asset advisory, disposition and sale/leaseback services to commercial property owners in Chicago and across the U.S. Throughout his 17 years in real estate brokerage, Foster has established a strong track record of industrial investment sales success and has solidified long-term relationships with leading institutional and regional commercial real estate owners. He also has a keen understanding of the asset-leasing business as a result of his experience as a successful office and industrial leasing broker.

During his career, Foster has been engaged to represent institutions, funds, regional entities and off-shore clients, completing more than $3 billion in transactions. He was consistently the national top producer in industrial investment sales at Grubb & Ellis, where he was Senior Vice-President and Director of the capital markets group. He is a past winner of the Investment Broker of the Year Award presented by the Chicago Sun-Times, and a repeat finalist in Chicago and other U.S. markets for the prestigious NAIOP Investment Sales Award. Foster's market insights and opinions make him a regular speaker at national real estate forums, and he often serves as a resource for many national real estate publications. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University as well as the CCIM designation, and is active with the Urban Land Institute and NAIOP.

"We are pleased to be joining Avison Young and look forward to continuing to serve our capital markets clients. Avison Young's partnership culture aligns the firm's interests with our clients, creating a truly best-in-class service delivery model," says Foster. "The company's exponential growth in recent years underscores the fact that the market recognizes the power of this model, and we are confident that commercial property owners will continue to award capital markets assignments to Avison Young's powerful platform."

Wilson focuses on providing capital markets advisory services for industrial and medical office property owners throughout the Midwest. He has represented both institutional and private-equity clients in investment property sales and worked with corporate clients on sale/leaseback transactions totaling more than $1 billion. Recent clients include Centerpoint Properties, WP Carey, Rreef, HSA Commercial, DCT Industrial, Principal Investors and First Industrial, among others.

Prior to joining Avison Young, Wilson helped launch the capital markets group at Grubb & Ellis, after serving as a top producer at another national investment brokerage firm. Having advised institutional clients on many significant transactions, he has been a finalist multiple years for the NAIOP Chicago Investment Deal of the Year Award as well as NAIOP Investment Awards in other Midwest markets.

Wilson obtained a Bachelor degree in finance from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University. During his tenure at Indiana, he was a member of the Hoosiers football team, earning selection to the Academic All Big-Ten Team. He is active in NAIOP, the Urban Land Institute and the Chicago Real Estate Council. He is also an advisory board member with the On Your Feet Foundation.

"I am very excited to be joining such a rapidly expanding yet well-established company, and to be starting a partnership with the high-quality Avison Young professionals in markets throughout the U.S. and Canada," notes Wilson. "Our team plans to continue offering our clients top-quality investment sales advisory services while enhancing and growing the firm's capital markets platform."

Today's announcement comes on the heels of Avison Young opening offices in New York and San Francisco last month.

Over the past three years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 30 offices and from 300 to more than 900 real estate professionals across Canada and the U.S.

In February, Avison Young was named a winner of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies program for 2011, sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, National Post and Queen's School of Business.

Founded in 1978, Avison Young is Canada's largest independently-owned commercial real estate services company. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Avison Young is also the largest Canadian-owned, principal-managed commercial real estate brokerage firm in North America. Comprising more than 900 real estate professionals in 30 offices across Canada and the U.S., the full-service commercial real estate company provides value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial and multi-residential properties.

www.avisonyoung.com

Avison Young is a winner of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies program for 2011, sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, National Post and Queen's School of Business

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• Editors/Reporters: please click on links to view and download photos of Mike Wilson and Erik Foster
http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/Mike_Wilson_0.jpg
http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/Erik%20Foster.jpg

For further information/comment/photos:

Sherry Quan, National Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young: [phone]; cell: [phone]
Michael McKiernan, Principal and Managing Director, Chicago, Avison Young: [phone]
Erik Foster, Principal, Avison Young: [phone]
Mike Wilson, Principal, Avison Young: [phone]
Earl Webb, President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: [phone]
Mark Rose, Chair and CEO, Avison Young: [phone]