Miller is building his brand one client at a time.

Marc Miller initially followed in the footsteps of his two older brothers and studied accounting, graduating from Queens College of the City University of New York in 1981.

However, in the Fall of 1982 while working for PricewaterhouseCoopers, his first accounting job, he realized that accounting was not for him when he began to take more of an interest in one of his client's real estate endeavors.

"I remember thinking, 'I can do this'," said Miller of his former client's business. Now, 25 years later, he is president of a company he founded on the premise that the customer is always right.

"As I grew professionally, I realized the importance of the client to broker relationship and why that relationship should be more important than the commission. Acknowledging that helped to expand my client base in numbers and in quality over the years," said Miller.

Miller got his start in the boutique Williamson, Picket, Gross, Inc. brokerage in 1982. "It's where I got my first cubical, but mostly Jim Gross gave me a great education in commercial real estate," said Miller. It was there he believes he learned the essential steps to helping tenants with any type of facility problem, and the importance of being involved in a way that benefits the client.

When he joined the leasing department in the New York office of the London based company, Michael Laurie & Partners, Miller's career took off. "I made 49 leases over a three year period and fell in love with real estate," he said.

His zeal for the job then took him to the firm Huberth & Huberth Inc. before moving to join Julian Studley Inc. in 1988 where he held executive positions through 2000 and earned a reputation as a top producing broker.

Operating in a culture such as Studley's where the finer points of tenant representation were honed to the highest degree, Miller said he recognized the importance of providing not only skillful and sharp analysis for his clients but how tailoring those demands to meet their specific needs at any one time could elevate the deal and the experience.

He took that mentality and ventured forth with the ambition to brand the type of service he really wanted to deliver to his clients. "I just felt it was a better motto to build a business on," he said.

Miller's focus on relationship building doesn't just stop at how he handles deals for his clients once he has them. "Many of our larger competitors have significant conflict of interest due to having too many clients at one time, and having too many large deals to make. That can hinder the ability of the client to be able to chose the right space in the right place, because of the conflict the company has created."

In fact, Miller is so dedicated to providing his clients with the most exclusive service available that he will draw up a contract that forbids him to take on another client that could impact his performance during any transaction. "Under that contract, if another company seeks out our services, we have to turn them away, telling them it is against our ethical values to take on another project, but to think of us in the future."

Miller also believes in not just having his clients chose him, but in having the ability to chose his clients. "As necessary as it is for the client to chose the best commercial broker for the job, we also interview our clients so we choose who we work with. There should be a partnership between broker and client.

The philosophy certainly seems to be paying off. 2006 was a record year for Miller & Associates, something Miller himself attributes to his commitment to provide productive relationships and mature professionalism.

The firm has just signed a 6,000 s/f Fifth Avenue lease for a large Spanish construction firm making its debut in the New York market and Miller & Associates located a French textile company in a new 20,000 s/f headquarters office in the Time Square South market.

"We've been doing a lot of work in the 10-20,000 s/f market. It's a niche we are happy with because of the opportunities and the clients," said Miller, who predicts a 15-20% increase in his company's revenue in 2007. "I just believe in building our brand and our firm one client at a time."