One of Hawaii’s biggest residential real estate firms is getting back into the commercial property brokerage business.

Coldwell Banker Realty, a Hawaii affiliate of Realogy Holdings Corp., said it has reentered the commercial real estate marketplace by establishing Coldwell Banker Commercial Realty, led by longtime local broker James Wright, who aims to add other agents to the operation.

“There’s definitely a need,” Wright said. “We want to grow the footprint and get it going.”

A commercial brokerage business under the Coldwell Banker franchise brand has had an intermittent history in Hawaii over the past several decades.

One such operation was established in 1986 and later went though a series of acquisitions and mergers that eventually became CB Richard Ellis, now known as CBRE.

In 1998 Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties acquired local commercial real estate firm Wagner & Wagner Inc. and established Coldwell Banker Commercial Pacific Properties. This firm operated until about three years ago.

The new firm will operate out of Coldwell Banker Realty’s Diamond Head-Kahala office with Wright as principal broker. Wright previously co-owned Century 21 All Islands Fine Homes & Estates, which had four offices and about 150 agents on Oahu acquired by Coldwell in 2017.

Mike James, president of Coldwell Banker Realty, said in a statement that the new commercial property business benefits by being linked to Coldwell’s technology and marketing assets, while commercial listings can be promoted to the firm’s roughly 700 agents who can share such information with clients.