There have been some very interesting appointments and promotions within commercial real estate firms in Orange County over the past few weeks. Firstly, the new Southern California-Hawaii division of the CBRE Group has appointed Lewis C. Horne as their president. This means he will now focus on Orange County, the Greater Los Angeles area, Hawaii, and San Diego. One of the offices he will head is that of Newport Beach.
Meanwhile, there have been some significant changes at Lee & Associates – Newport Beach, who have appointed a new senior vice president and principal.
The Lee & Associates – Newport Beach office has announced that Brian Barson, CCIM has been promoted to Senior Vice President and Principal. The promotion is in recognition of the high levels of success achieved by Mr. Barson in a relatively short period of time.
Another senior vice principal who has started at Lee & Associates – Newport Beach is Robert Goodmanson. He was previously the senior VP at CBRE Newport Beach.
Each year Bob represents many groups that buy, sell or lease space. Transactions range in size from 2,000 square feet to 425,000 square feet and span all product types from Class A & B industrial buildings to R&D/Manufacturing/Distribution buildings. Bob is consistently a top producer and continues to be recognized in the industry as being one of the most knowledgeable and experienced brokers.
Between Robert Goodmanson and Brian Barson, it is believed that Lee & Associates – Newport Beach will soon become one of the biggest players in the field of commercial real estate in the entire county. They are certainly drawing the attention of many other similar companies.
Meanwhile, Alan Clifton has been appointed by Passco Cos. in Irvine as their chief operating officer. They have also appointed Suzy Cottle, who is now their chief financial officer. Together, they will focus strongly on property management services offered by Passco Cos.
Suzy Cottle has spent more than 23 years in the finance and real estate industries. As Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Cottle oversees all financial reporting for Passco Companies and its affiliates. Prior to joining Passco, Ms. Cottle served as Director of Corporate Finance for Steadfast Companies, where she was involved in the development of innovative systems to enhance reporting timeliness and accuracy. In addition, Ms. Cottle was responsible for financial reporting for more than $2 billion in real estate assets owned by institutional pension funds during a 10-year tenure with PM Realty Advisors.
The appointment of Suzy Cottle is of great interested in the market. She is known in the industry for her fantastic knowledge and expertise, and people are excited to see what she will do with Passco Cos. While this company is already very successful, it is believed that under her financial guidance, it will become even better.
Meanwhile, real estate investment firm HCP has appointed Peter Scott as their CFO and executive vice president. HCP is one of the nation’s largest real estate investors.
Peter Scott to join HCP as executive vice president and chief financial officer. HCP Inc- Scott succeeds Tom Herzog who was appointed chief executive officer in January 2017. HCP Inc – Scott currently serves as a managing director in real estate banking group at Barclays.
In addition, Twenty Four Seven Hotels has appointed Gary Gray as chief investment officer, where he will be responsible for the hotel management portfolio and will be charged with hotel management opportunities, developments, and acquisitions. The firm has also appointed Alison Sansone, who will be their marketing and communications vice president.
Last but not least, Cox, Castle & Nicholson have made Julian Freeman partner in their Irvine Location. Freeman is an attorney in real estate transactions, having specialized in leasing, developing, disposing, and acquiring retail, industrial, and office properties.
Orange County Transactions
It has been a busy few weeks in terms of personnel development within the Orange County commercial real estate market, and there have been some significant transactions as well. Costa Mesa’s Burnham USA Equities, for instance, has successfully negotiated a lease for the 16 Corporate Plaza premises in Newport Beach for Charles Schwab. Schwab was represented by Scott Burnham and his team at CBRE
Irvine-based institutional fund manager BKM Capital Partners has also kicked off its debut fund with a bang, by selling its first three multi-tenant business parks for industrial use. They now aim to raise three times more capital for their next venture.
The firm is back in the market with a $300 million target for BKM Industrial Value Fund II. Mallet said BKM increased its target from the first fund because of a long pipeline of investment opportunities and increased investor interest, particularly from US public pension plans and other institutions investors that are often restricted from investing in a firm’s debut fund.
It appears that the commercial real estate market in Orange County never stands still. There has been a free seminar on apartment selling that was provided by Stanfield Real Estate of Huntington Beach, which was very well attended. Meanwhile, Cal State Fullerton’s Real Estate and Land Use Institute recently presented its yearly commercial real estate forum. This event had an entry price of $150 per head, of $1,250 for a ten person’s corporate table. This annual event is always very well attended.
The Real Estate & Land Use Institute (RELUI), located in the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics, is part of the 23-campus California State University System’s applied research and professional education center for real estate and urban land use. Cal State Fullerton’s (CSUF’s) branch of the institute was established in 1996.
As you can see, there are lots of things going on in terms of the Orange County commercial real estate market. It is certainly a market to watch for investors and businesses alike. Prices have been shown to continuously increase. However, some people are worried that this could be a prelude to a second housing bubble burst. In turn, this has made some investors very weary. However, considering the sheer number of highly experienced investors and real estate professionals who continue to put Orange County on the map, it is quite safe to assume that things are still looking very good.
