Terms of the deal, for which an agreement was signed on Nov. 11, weren’t disclosed. Preliminary talks for the acquisition began in late July 2019, then picked up steam in the spring.

“We have a dynamic, awesome, entrepreneurial team with a lot of different skill sets,” Nicola Wealth Real Estate managing director Mark Hannah told RENX. “What appealed to us about Blackwood is that they also have a similar dynamic team.

“What we feel we’re good at and what we also believe that Blackwood is good at, because they’ve proved it, is they know how to source opportunities and put deals together with tenants and execute. If you can do those things, then capital will follow.”

“In a relationship, business or otherwise, the whole has to be bigger than the sum of the parts,” Blackwood managing partner Michael Cairns said in a separate interview. “One plus one has to equal three or more, and I think we’re going to be well above that number in terms of what we can do together.

“We’re much bigger and stronger together than we are independently in the real estate space.”

Nicola Wealth Real Estate primarily represents high-net-worth individuals and families, while Blackwood represents institutional investors.

“This is not an acquisition about cost savings,” said Cairns. “This is an acquisition about revenue growth, diversifying a client base and providing a bigger range of services to both institutional and high-net-worth clients.”