Grubb & Ellis Growth in Services and Affiliates Inspires Investment
Real estate investment firm Kojaian Ventures, based in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, has agreed to stake $15.2 million on the growing fortunes of real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis, a measure that would grant Kojaian the voting power of a majority stockholder. The investment will replace debt and equity investments and commitments made earlier this year by Warburg Pincus on financial terms more favorable to Grubb & Ellis than the Warburg Pincus investments. Michael Kojaian has been an active stockholder since 1996. “This is more than just an investment of capital,” said Barry Barovick, Grubb & Ellis president and CEO. “It’s a demonstration of Michael Kojaian’s confidence in our company’s ability to establish an innovative new business platform, and increase our client base, market share and revenues.” “As real estate investors, the Kojaian Companies know from firsthand experience that the industry needs a resource that can deliver an integrated approach to advisory, transaction and management services globally,” said Kojaian. “Grubb & Ellis has made significant progress during the past year to fully develop that capability.  Certainly the firm’s capabilities were enhanced weeks before the investment, when Grubb & Ellis acquired site selection and economic development firm the Wadley-Donovan Group. Dennis Donovan will head the newly named Global Site Selection Services division, headquartered in New York. “We believe that site selection and the consequent economic development impact are two key issues shaping the outcome of any strategic planning exercise,” said Barovick. “We joined Grubb & Ellis because we’re convinced that their vision of providing global real estate solutions for private and public sector clients is the best we’ve seen,” Donovan said. In addition to that firm’s integration, Grubb & Ellis has not only continued to grow its affiliate program (now standing at 39 with the addition of New Hampshire-based Coldstream Real Estate), but also has embarked on the nuts-and-bolts management changes needed for going truly global. “It’s time for real change in this industry,” said Barovick. “By offering strategic planning, site selection, work force analysis capabilities and other key resources along with transaction and asset management expertise, we are confident that Grubb & Ellis will change the way the real estate industry thinks and operates,” he said. |
Service Providers On the Move
The board of directors at EastGroup Properties, a self-administered equity REIT based in Jackson, Miss., has elected Hayden C. Eaves III as a director. Eaves serves as a managing director of Investment Development Services Inc. in Los Angeles. He previously spent 23 years with the Trammell Crow Co., including service as president and CEO of the company’s western region. He replaces John N. Palmer, who resigned to become the United States Ambassador to Portugal. EastGroup’s portfolio, focused on premier distribution facilities in major Sunbelt markets, currently includes 17.5 million sq. ft. with an additional 913,000 sq. ft. of properties under development.
John C. Moe, a 17-year industry veteran, has been appointed senior vice president at Divco West, the San Jose-based real estate ownership, investment and development firm that hired him in September 2000. In addition, Christopher Peatross, formerly with the Northern California offices of Catellus Development Corp. and Spieker Partners, has been appointed senior vice president at Divco West.
Joyce M. Slone, former director of the Industrial/Technology Group of Cushman & Wakefield of Illinois Inc., has been appointed director of portfolio leasing at Northern Builders Inc., based in Schiller Park, Ill. The 75-year-old firm has a portfolio of over 5 million sq. ft. of office and industrial properties.
Jones Lang LaSalle has appointed Herman E. Bulls, 46, as Managing Director, bringing him back to the company where he worked for more than 13 years. “He has a proven track record with our public institutions specialty and, because he is a veteran of our company, he has a deep appreciation for our team, our culture and our goals,” said Chris Peacock, president and CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle, in April. “His return will re-energize Jones Lang LaSalle’s commitment to universities and government institutions.” Based in Washington, D.C., Bulls serves on the board of directors of the Executive Leadership Foundation and the Foundation of Independent Higher Education, and is a member of the West Point Board of Trustees and the Urban Land Institute.
John Brandon has been promoted to vice president, regional director of development for Liberty Property Trust, which first hired him in 1996 as director of development. The real estate management and development firm has almost 50 million sq. ft. of office and industrial property under its wing, including 11 million sq. ft. in the Mid-Atlantic region, where Brandon will preside. He formerly served as project coordinator for the 1,100-acre Piedmont Centre development in his hometown of High Point, N.C., which is now fully developed and encompasses employment of more than 10,000 people.
Cushman & Wakefield India, based in New Delhi, has promoted Chanakya Chakravarti and Sanjay Verma to executive directors, with Michael Thompson, former managing director for the division, remaining in the post of CEO for C&W Asia Pacific. Chakravarti, based in Mumbai, and Verma will continue to lead the corporate services and asset services divisions.
Paul Wallerius, formerly with CB Richard Ellis, has brought his 22 years of facilities management experience to Minneapolis-based United Properties as director of operations in the company’s facilities services group.
Spatial Insights Takes to the AirGeographic information services company Spatial Insights, based in Vienna, Va., has formed a strategic alliance with AirPhotoUSA, based in Phoenix, Ariz. The Virginia firm adds a full menu of aerial photography services to its consulting, mapping and GIS software portfolio, serving as a value-added reseller of AirPhotoUSA’s growing library of images.
“We are very impressed with the quality, high resolution, currency and coverage of the AirPhotoUSA data and excited about the added benefits they offer our clients in support of their marketing, site selection and development studies,” said Don Segal, president of Spatial Insights.
So was Boston location intelligence firm geoVue, which recently cemented its own partnership with the Arizona company.
“The value we bring to the site selection industry is we have the content,” says Paul Burrows, AirPhotoUSA’s director of strategic relations. “In my opinion we’re the most important piece of content, but we’re just another layer in the whole process.”
Organizations from government agencies to mapping firms to brokers see Burrows’ point, and they’re signing up with firms like his to get the best data to fill their newest applications. The company has also developed its own PhotoMapper product, in order to gently introduce real estate professionals and their clients to the intricacies and uses of GIS technology.
“If you’re going to expand, you can really get the logistics down, even pad spots,” explains Burrows. “How much parking will you need, and is there going to be sufficient land available? You can do the measurement right on top of the aerial, and capitalize on the real estate you already have to increase your revenue stream.”
The firm’s library of photography, covering approximately 50 major metro markets at 2-ft.-pixel resolution, is updated on a 15-month cycle, using a network of aerial photographers that is steadily growing eastward.
“We were the first to do a seamless project that stretches from the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border through Lancaster, Pennsylvania,” says Burrows. “Our next goal is to get the Rust Belt, from Indianapolis through Buffalo.”
He is working through some royalty issues in order to cut a deal for Canadian data sometime within the next year, and from there, well, the sky’s the limit.
“If I had it my way,” Burrows says, “we’d fly the world.”
One of the country’s oldest continuous architectural practices, van Dijk Pace Westlake Architects, has changed its name to van Dijk Westlake Reed Leskosky. The firm, founded in Cleveland in 1905 by U.S. President James Garfield’s son Abram, has grown its staff of nearly 100 people into offices in Cleveland and Phoenix, Ariz.; stretched its expertise into fields as wide-ranging as healthcare, cultural arts, workplace and R&D facilities; and integrated engineering and interior design into its overall package of services. The name change marks the ongoing leadership of principals Peter van Dijk, Paul E. Westlake, Ronald A. Reed, and Vince Leskosky. In addition, Philip LiBassi and Michael Reagan have been named principals of the firm. The change also marks the departure of 22-year associate (and 10-year managing partner) Richard Y. Pace, who is pursuing full-time his leadership of real estate development firm the Cumberland Company.
