Industry veteran James E. Brown has been appointed senior managing director for the L.A. North region of CB Richard Ellis. Brown, whose appointment is effective on June 1, will oversee the company’s brokerage services in the San Fernando, Conejo, Santa Clarita, San Gabriel and Antelope valleys and a staff of about 100. He will also handle new business development, client relations and property and facility management. Brown spent the better part of his 35-year career with Newhall Land where, for the past 11 years, he oversaw the development of Valencia Gateway as vice president of real estate development. Before his retirement from Newhall last week, he saw development at the Gateway increase from 9.8 million square feet to 23.3 million square feet and Newhall Land, perhaps the oldest development company in California, sold to LNR Property Group for $1 billion. In his new post, Brown is returning to his roots in real estate brokerage. He began his career with Grubb & Ellis in San Diego in the late 1970s. The brokerage business has undoubtedly changed somewhat since those days, and perhaps more so at CB, which has recently acquired several companies, expanding its services into the bargain. In 2003, CB acquired Insignia Financial Group, and last year it acquired Trammell Crow Company. With the exception of its El Segundo office, which has become a retail hub office, the Trammell Crow offices were earlier integrated into CB’s facilities in the greater L.A. region. Brown said he is hoping to help the CB brokers to better leverage the resources that those acquisitions have added to the company. “I’m looking to define the markets that are out there and the opportunities for CB Richard Ellis, and how I can help connect the dots of the services that we provide,” Brown said. “I understand brokerage, but I want to understand the whole platform from facilities management to corporate services and asset and property management and bring that into the brokerage.” Laing Closes on Mosaic After several delays John Laing Homes Urban has finally closed on the Sherman Oaks property along Ventura Boulevard and Moorpark Street. Laing, which is believed to have paid about $18 million for the property, according to brokers who were not involved in the deal, is planning to build 88 condominiums and about 16,500 square feet of retail space on the site, located at 14121 Ventura Blvd. The development will be called Mosaic. The property was first earmarked for redevelopment in 2002, when PCS Development began working to construct a rental apartment complex. By the time the property was finally entitled, PCS feared that the apartment market was softening and it struck a deal with Laing about two years ago. Laing received approval for its project, far smaller than the originally entitled development, about a year ago, but had to continue to battle some community opponents who appealed the decision. Gregory S. Harris, president of The Harris Group of Marcus & Millichap, represented the buyer and seller in the transaction. The Whole Enchilada Hot tortillas anyone? Gruma, the parent company for Mission brand tortillas and the world’s largest flour and corn tortilla company, is about to open its first San Fernando Valley manufacturing facility at The Plant in Panorama City. “There’s a big enough market in the Valley and they didn’t want to be delivering from Rancho Cucamonga,” said Greg Geraci, a broker with CB Richard Ellis, who, with CB’s David Harding, Walt Chenoweth and Frank Geraci, represented Gruma in the deal. Gruma actually had identified several markets the company thought would be suitable for a new tortilla manufacturing plant location, so the CB team was under pressure to identify a Valley site early. “If they found a facility in another target area, they would put this one on hold,” Geraci said. A solution came from an unlikely source, a decorative accessories company that had recently inked a deal to acquire a 200,000 square foot facility in The Plant’s recently completed addition in Panorama City. Zodax had intended to expand its operations into half of the building and lease out the other half, but Gruma made Zodax a deal to lease the entire facility that it couldn’t refuse. “Our intention was to occupy half the building, which we did, and lease the balance,” said Philip Cohanim, president of Zodax. “Then Gruma appeared, and since they were a credit tenant and required the entire building on a long-term lease, it was an opportunity we did not want to lose.” The Gruma deal, brokered by David Hoffberg and Jerry Scullin of Delphi Business Properties Inc., is a 10-year lease valued at $16 million. Hoffberg and Scullin are now representing Zodax in its search to replace the space. Senior reporter Shelly Garcia can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or by e-mail at [email protected] .
