Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services has harnessed itself to a powerful national name in a bid to boost its brokerage business as the economy revives.

The privately held firm purchased the Portland area regional franchise rights to Sperry Van Ness Commercial Real Estate Advisors, an Irvine, California-based brand with 160 offices and 800 brokers nationwide.

Bluestone & Hockley is a 140-person real estate firm with a 15-member brokerage team as well as interests in property management.

The deal was completed in mid-June. Sperry Van Ness Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Brokerage makes its formal debut on July 5. It marries a national brand that brokered $4.7 billion of real estate sales in 2010 to a Portland-based independent responsible for about $50 million in sales last year.

Cliff Hockley, president, declined to disclose terms of the franchise agreement, but called it was a “substantial” investment that will deliver a national profile and the potential to attract national clients.

To lead the brokerage arm, he enlisted Karlin Conklin, a former investment executive with Guardian Management. Conklin brings familiarity with the Sperry Van Ness platform to the new post. Guardian briefly took over the Sperry Van Ness brand in 2007, but the venture didn’t survive the economic downturn.

Curt Arthur, who manages the Sperry Van Ness franchise in Salem, approached Hockley about linking up as part of a larger strategy to cement Sperry Van Ness’s profile in the top 35 U.S. markets.

Despite its past relationship with Guardian, Sperry Van Ness had a relatively small presence in Portland.

It is chiefly represented by the family brokerage team of Gary, Ryan and Kris Imbrie. The Beaverton-based firm, Sperry Van Ness – Imbrie Realty LLC, focuses on retail sales throughout the state.

“Portland is a very important market for us,” Arthur said. “We want to have a larger presence there than we have in the past.”

Hockley said the message resonated. By partnering with a 160-office network, Bluestone & Hockley hopes to expand its brokerage business by making itself attractive to larger businesses that want a single partner to handle their real estate needs. Its new partner brings a new suite of tools, including an online auction service, and access to new capital sources.

Sperry Van Ness isn’t the only national player shopping for a local partner. Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle, a global firm with more than 1,000 offices worldwide, is widely rumored to be shopping for a local partner to upgrade its Portland presence.

Independents comfirm they’re being courted.

Craig Sweitzer, principal with Urban Works Real Estate, said he’s rejected several overtures by national firms wanting to link with his independent brokerage, which specializes in urban retail space. His business doesn’t depend on national referrals, he said.

The timing of the Sperry Van Ness-Bluestone deal is not accidental. Bluestone & Hockley’s brokers specialize chiefly in investment sales, a particularly slow part of the market. Hockley doesn’t expect the market to normalize for another 12 to 18 months, but the national profile will help it gain market share when it does.

“Our focus is to grow our business,” he said.

Like Sperry Van Ness, Bluestone & Hockley keeps a relative low profile by specializing in Class B and tertiary properties, the day-to-day income producing real estate that seldom generate headlines when it is leased or sold.

George Slusser, chief operating officer of Sperry Van Ness International, said Bluestone’s mix of brokerage and property management services made it an attractive local partner as the firm looked to gain a presence in the Northwest.

“They are really an ideal candidate for us,” he said.

Sperry Van Ness launched in 1987 and began franchising its offices in 2000. It operates in about 155 markets. Investment sales represented about 70 percent of its activity in 2010 and leasing represented the balance. Franchisees operate all of its local offices.

Bluestone & Hockley brokered $50 million in sales in 2010. Conklin said the Sperry partnership will help Bluestone meet its goal of growing to $55 million in the first year. The firm expects to add five to 10 new brokers as well, she said.

Story By Wendy Culverwell – Portland Business Journal Staff Writer