Coldwell Banker: Mission Viejo-based Coldwell Banker Residential...

Coldwell Banker: Mission Viejo-based Coldwell Banker Residential Affiliates Inc. released a tersely worded statement this week that it is “establishing a program to enhance the commercial business already being done by a select number of our existing affiliate brokers.”

In 1989, Sears, Roebuck & Co., owner of Coldwell Banker Residential, sold the real estate company’s commercial operations to an employee-led buyout group that now calls itself CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc.

Talk of Coldwell Banker Residential branching out into commercial real estate was met with skepticism by at least one potential competitor, CB Commercial Real Estate broker Donald W. Wise.

“I think it’s folly,” said Wise, a senior associate in the company’s Anaheim office. “Their timing is rather incredulous; commercial real estate has a long way to go before it pulls out of this current slump. And selling commercial real estate is an infinitely more complex transaction than selling residential real estate. It requires a lot of training if you’re going to be successful at it.”