Resource Commercial Real Estate is one of a handful of local real estate brokerage firms angling to take over an affiliation with Colliers International.

Colliers Turley Martin Tucker, the largest local commercial brokerage firm, is dropping the Colliers flag on March 1 to become Cassidy Turley. The move to rebrand the outfit, which is based in St. Louis, means the Colliers brand and platform now is available to other firms in several major cities, including Indianapolis.

It isn't clear how Colliers will pick new affiliates; a top official with Colliers, which has its U.S. headquarters in Boston, did not return a phone message.

Resource CEO Sam Smith said his firm has expressed interest in partnering with Colliers, which plans to merge this year with Toronto-based FirstService Real Estate Advisers to form a behemoth with 480 offices in 61 countries. Resource does not have a national affiliation.

"Certainly it’s an attractive organization, a very large and successful company and a terrific opportunity for whoever can plug into their platform and brand and people and technology," Smith said.

Landing an affiliation with a national real estate network helps provide leads and extend the reach of local firms.

National scale can be a major benefit: The new local office of Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle recently won leasing responsibilities for the 1.1-million-square-foot Chase Tower thanks in large part to building owner Macquarie Office Trust's ongoing relationship with JLL in larger markets. The local JLL office is a wholly owned branch of the national firm, not an affiliate.

But affiliations can provide the same kind of boost. Local firms typically pay royalties to belong to a national or international real estate network, and are expected to send leads to other firms with the same affiliation.

Smith expects to know whether Resource will win the flag within the next few months. He recently bought the domain name colliersresource.com and other addresses "purely on a speculative basis," he said. "Nobody has chosen us."

Other companies among those thought to be attractive potential Colliers partners: Meridian Real Estate, an unaffiliated local brokerage; Olympia Partners, currently a member of the New Jersey-based NAI Global network; and Harding Dahm & Co., an affiliate of California-based Grubb & Ellis.

Colliers International also could choose a regional player based in another city and give them responsibility for the Indianapolis market.

Jeff Henry, the local managing director of what will soon be known as Cassidy Turley, said his company is printing new stationery, signs, business cards and redesigning its Web site, all to minimize brand confusion with whichever firm takes over the Colliers name.

"We really don’t know what process or criteria they will use to select someone here in Indianapolis," Henry said. "We’re doing our own thing."