As some of you know, we got the grand tour of Phoenix. Our intrepid reporter Jarred Schenke visited with many of you, and for the next few weeks, we'll be featuring those interviews. First on our list is Colliers International's Bob Mulhern, one of Phoenix's CRE vets, who began the life in 1983 with Charlie Keating, a SoCal and Phoenix developer. “He was the kind of employer who really threw you into whatever he was involved with,” Bob says. After stints with CBRE, Ryan Cos, and Reliance Cos, Bob joined Colliers in 2009 just as development overall was shutting down due to recession.

And with nine children ranging in age from 24-years-old to 21-months-old (“So I have a son in diapers and another one is in New Zealand seeing the world”), he took on the managing director role at Colliers. About the economy: “We clearly have momentum… much more significant activity than we had a year ago,” he says. “What we don't have yet is as many jobs in the market as we had in 2008 and 2009.” Certainly the deals his firm has done over the past year demonstrate development momentum: Kansas City Life's spec projects in West Valley, GCU’s Eastmark 100-plus acre site, and working on a spec mixed-use development with Rockefeller Group (pictured above) in the East Valley.