IDS Real Estate Group set up a spiffy new Website to market Westlake Landmark, a 180,000-square-foot office development the company is currently building. They needn’t have bothered. Although construction is not due to be completed until the summer, IDS has already leased the two-building project to Countrywide Financial Corp. Brokers on the deal would not return phone calls and IDS officials could not be reached, but the total consideration on the 10-year lease that was just signed is believed to be $64 million. Jim Lindvall and Tom Festa, brokers with Grubb & Ellis, represented IDS in the deal. Countrywide was represented by Steven N. Eyler and James Travers at Travers Realty. The office leasing deal is the second for Countrywide in recent months. The Calabasas-based company recently inked a deal for about 75,000 square feet of office space at 6303 Owensmouth Ave., the 21st Century headquarters building. But despite the company’s recent activity, Countrywide is not significantly expanding in the local area. “The space is replacement space for leases that we have come to an end on, and to relieve overcrowding in existing facilities,” said Rick Simon, a spokesman for the company. Countrywide, which has seen exponential growth in recent years thanks largely to the burgeoning real estate market and to its efforts to diversify into new areas of the financial services industry, has, for the most part, directed its expansion outside the L.A. area, making no secret of its displeasure over the business climate in California. The company now occupies and/or owns about 2.7 million square feet of space in Texas and over 1 million square feet of space in Arizona. In Florida, a market which it entered last month, Countrywide now occupies about 230,000 square feet of space. “Our expansion is still taking place out of state,” said Simon. “If you look at the last two years, Countrywide’s workforce has expanded 28 percent each year worldwide, and the workforce in California has remained stable.” Indeed, along with its real estate expansion, the company has also targeted much of the growth of its labor force outside the state. “Last year alone we had a 33 percent increase in the workforce in Texas,” Simon said. “It’s more rapid than that in Arizona.” Still the company’s workforce in California is sizable, numbering about 18,000 employees with about 14,000 of those attached to its corporate headquarters operation. Those employees have been housed not only at its headquarters in Calabasas, but in buildings strewn around the greater Valley, including Simi Valley, Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and the Malibu Hills. In addition, the corporate offices and some others have become so overcrowded that the company provides valet parking in order to manage the crammed parking areas. Countrywide owns its corporate headquarters building and some others, but some of the other office space it occupies has been leased, and as those leases expire, employees will be relocated to the new facilities in Westlake Village and Woodland Hills. Simon said it is premature to discuss which divisions will be located at Westlake Landmark, but he projects that about 900 employees will be housed there. Westlake Landmark is part of the Westlake North Specific Plan area, a 129 acre master planned development featuring low rise office buildings, support retail, single family homes, a park, and a hotel. The complex sits across the road from the Four Seasons Hotel and the Dole Wellness Center currently under construction. Gentilucci Opens Shop Richard Gentilucci, former managing director of Shamrock Capital Advisors, has hung out a shingle in Burbank. Gentilucci has formed BTG Advisors, a real estate consulting and advisory firm that will work with both for-profit and not-for-profit investors. BTG, which stands for bridging the gap, will provide services ranging from strategic analysis and planning to development oversight and funding. Gentilucci, a licensed real estate broker whose background includes expertise in entitlements, construction management and debt financing, sees an opportunity to assist real estate investors, who are finding that rising interest rates, sky-high property prices and scarcity of product are making it much more difficult to invest in real estate. “Before, it was easy to make money,” Gentilucci said. “Now it is much more difficult because you do not have the inflation that was going on and with the cost increases you really need somebody to advise you on the decisions you are making. When things are more difficult you want somebody that understands the market and the risks associated with it.” In addition to private investors, Gentilucci said he hopes to assist non-profits who are realizing that real estate assets can be used to generate operating revenues. Gentilucci said that foundations and similar groups often are bequeathed real estate, and they do not have the in-house expertise to put those assets to use. At Shamrock, Gentilucci managed the real estate portfolio for the Roy E. Disney family and oversaw the Genesis LA Real Estate Fund. Created under former Mayor Richard Riordan’s tenure, the Genesis Fund was intended to provide financial assistance for neighborhoods that might otherwise find it hard to attract capital. The idea was that more jobs would be created by stimulating economic development in these neighborhoods. The fund launched with about $85 million and a second fund totaling $100 million was added later. Gentilucci left Shamrock in January. He intends to focus his business in the Southern California area. “My philosophy is real estate is a local commodity,” he said. “If you can’t get to it and back in a day, you sometimes don’t pay attention to it. And if you’ve got a problem, you better be able to get there in the morning.”