83.9 F
San Fernando
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

New Santa Clarita Office, New Executive for JLL

In July, real estate giants Jones Lang LaSalle and The Staubach Company joined forces, creating a juggernaut with 598 employees, more than 20 million square feet of space under management, and $1.1 billion in capital market sales. That same month, Jim Lindvall, a 20-year Grubb & Ellis veteran, joined JLL as managing director of the North Los Angeles submarket and less than three months later, announced that he would be opening a new corporate office in Santa Clarita on Oct. 20. I spoke with Lindvall about all of the changes going on just before they moved into the new space. Question: Tell me about the new office. Answer: The L.A. North corporate office will not be just a brokerage but will offer all of the service lines including project development services, marketing, corporate solutions, and so it is a corporate office. It’s not just a kind of offshoot that’s out there in the suburbs with a couple of brokers rattling around. Q: How many staff will be there? A: Approximately 10 on a daily basis. There are several folks in addition who will be working out of the office frequently but whose base is not necessarily this office. Personally, I live in Santa Clarita, so it’s going to be very nice for me. Q: When you made your move from Grubb & Ellis in July, did you join Jones Lang Lasalle or was it Staubach? A: I joined Jones Lang Lasalle which acquired and merged with the Staubach Company just about dead-on when I came over. The merging of the Staubach Company was just an added bonus for me. I had already made the decision to come to JLL before that. Q: What’s the difference between Grubb & Ellis and JLL that caused you to decide to make the jump? A: Grubb & Ellis (I was there 20 years), is a fine brokerage company, but JLL is an exceptional real estate services company. JLL is not just a brokerage with a few extra people rattling around the edges. JLL has the full breadth of services. In the past I’ve not had a capital markets group to rely upon. What JLL has that will allow me to do more sales is we have a very elite capital markets group that specializes in large investment sales. Grubb & Ellis was typically more leasing oriented. The move will allow me to provide my clients with a broader range of services. For a landlord client, we can provide a much better picture of the investment sales market and what opportunities will be there for a sale. On the corporate side, we’re tenant representatives and we can bring in the CM (construction management) component, the PDS components we call it, to provide construction services. We can bring in the consulting group to help them. In times like this people are looking for that assistance so having that array of service is a huge benefit. What it really boils down to is JLL is well-suited to assist clients in both a growing market and theoretically a shrinking market. We’re well-suited to capitalize on the change in the economic conditions. Q: What kind of services specifically are needed in this market? A: I would definitely point to the consulting group which basically can assist clients with analyzing their business. It goes much beyond simply the traditional brokerage analysis of “here’s your shrinking sales per square foot,” or what kind of rental rate you can get in the markets or what your prospects for sub-leasing are. It’s much more in-depth. It’s really understanding the client’s business. Q: Do you have any deals going on right now that might illustrate that? A: The one that’s actually happening right now would be obvious if I were to say it so I’d rather not. Q: How has the merging of Staubach affected JLL from your new point of view? A: Staubach had a solid presence here in Southern California. They have an office in downtown L.A. which is actually where I have been for the past two months up until the Santa Clarita office opening. It has been a wonderful experience for me because I almost feel like I’ve joined two companies. JLL has a fantastic platform of services. JLL did not have a large presence of brokers in the So. Cal. market with respect to the competition; with the addition of Staubach it does. And watching the merger between the two groups there really has not been much in the way of conflict or people wanting to claim what’s theirs vs. what the other group’s been working on. It’s been a very seamless transition. And part of that stems from the fact that you really did have a brokerage presence in Staubach that was focused on tenant representation and while JLL has a large presence in corporate accounts and assisting clients on a larger perspective, there were not a ton of So. Cal. JLL brokers who competed directly with the Staubach folks. Staff Reporter Linda Coburn can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or at [email protected] .

Featured Articles

Related Articles