San Diego’s Annual Office Forum

Pete Garcia is a Principal in I.D.E.A Partners, together with David Malmuth. Prior to starting I.D.E.A. Partners, Pete spent an entire career as a builder, developer, and engineer of major public and private real estate projects throughout the United States, Mexico, and Costa Rica, including residential, commercial, retail, industrial, hospitality, manufacturing, research, educational, process, and infrastructure projects.

Jack Burger launched Burger Construction in 1990, offering services geared towards the particular requirements of tenant improvement construction. Twenty four years later, Burger has built a company that has seen sustained success due to its reliable service offering and building strong connections within the San Diego community. Jack, a San Diego native, recalls growing up riding his dirt bike over vast areas of San Diego prior to development (think UTC and Mission Valley as farmland). These memories have created a sense of responsibility with Jack to help construct San Diego precisely and faultless. Jack went to the University of Oregon where he graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration. Shortly after, he began his construction career as a journeyman where he gained indispensable experience in field practices and craftsmanship. He eventually worked his way up to being relied on to manage major development projects. Working for industry giants such as The Douglas Allred Company, Ryland Homes and Buie Communities, Burger gained broad experience in all facets of the development and construction trades and developed strong relationships that have become the foundation of his business. As a strong advocate of corporate philanthropy, Burger has supported the fundraising efforts of over 20 San Diego-based charities, including the Boys & Girls Club, Big Brothers and Sisters, Home Aid, San Diego Children’s Center, Christmas in April and Project Mercy. He is also actively involved in NAIOP (board member), BOMA, BIA and CREW. Jack resides in Solana Beach with his wife and two children and enjoys surfing

Kaitlin Murphy Arduino is President of Murphy Development Company, a leading developer of corporate industrial and technology parks in San Diego.  Mrs. Arduino is responsible for day-to-day management of MDC, as well as all aspects of the development cycle including land use analysis and site selection, entitlement and permitting for the company’s corporate business parks, and construction project management. Mrs. Arduino also works with the CFO to source the construction and permanent financing for Murphy Development’s existing assets and new acquisitions, and manages the leasing of the company’s vacant space. MDC recently completed a state-of-the-art facility for The Salvation Army in Otay Mesa, the 137,000 SF Campus at San Diego Business Park Building 3 which is now fully leased, and a 40,000 SF office TI for the GSA. MDC is also under construction on 400,000 SF of spec buildings, both R&D and industrial, in Otay Mesa and Scripps Ranch. Mrs. Arduino started her career at HFF, one of the country’s largest real estate capital intermediaries.  During her time there, Mrs. Arduino underwrote over $1.5 billion in commercial properties; as an originator, she closed over $90 million in financing. Mrs. Arduino holds a Masters in Real Estate Economics and Finance from the London School of Economics, where she graduated with distinction.  Mrs. Arduino completed her undergraduate degree in finance at the University of Arizona.  She currently serves as Vice Chair for the Otay Mesa Property Owners Association, and previously served on the SANDAG ITOC committee and the Otay Mesa Planning Group.  Mrs. Arduino is an active member of CREW and NAIOP. Mrs. Arduino volunteers her time with Young Life Beach Cities.

Brunson Howard has joined Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's San Diego office as a senior managing director. Mr. Howard works with Kevin Shannon and his team as part of NGKF Capital Markets, focusing exclusively on investment sales for office, industrial and R&D property across Southern California. Mr. Howard joined NGKF Capital Markets from Cushman & Wakefield, where he was a senior managing director and a member of the firm's capital markets group. Mr. Howard's commercial real estate experience has been multi-disciplinary, with a concentration on both investment sales and landlord representation. Clients over the course of his career have included AEW Capital Management, Arden Realty, Clarion, Falcon Realty, Greenlaw, Hackman Capital, IVG Immobilien AG, LBA Realty, LNR Properties, Metzler Real Estate, Morgan Stanley/Glenborough, Real Estate Capital Partners, RREEF, Shea Properties, Sony, Sunroad Enterprises, TA Associates and Union Investment AG. Mr. Howard began his career at Burnham Real Estate (later acquired by Cushman & Wakefield), where he specialized in representing owners and investors of institutional real estate throughout Southern California as an agency broker. Before commencing a career in real estate, Mr. Howard served with the U.S. Marine Corps. An aviator, he flew a variety of aircraft including AH-1W Cobra attack helicopters and F/A-18D strike fighters. In 2008, Mr. Howard received the Deal of the Year award for Outstanding Brokerage Excellence. The following year, he was recognized as a CoStar Power Broker for leasing transaction volume. Mr. Howard is a 2010 graduate of LEAD Impact San Diego, an organization dedicated to identifying and developing San Diego's future leaders. He received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Texas State University.

Jason Hill is a Principal and Acquisition Director of Hill Properties, a San Diego-based office and industrial investment and development Company. Mr. Hill’s primary role is sourcing new acquisitions for the company. He is involved in the underwriting, JV partnership structuring, financing, due diligence and closing of each new acquisition and remains involved in the asset management to assure execution of the business plan. Jason obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley and started his career with UBS Realty Investors, LLC in San Francisco as an asset management analyst where he worked on a portfolio of $500 million in office, industrial, retail and multi-family assets. Jason then worked as an associate with Tishman Speyer where he oversaw a $3.2 billion portfolio of Class A office assets in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City.

Martin L. Togni is a partner in the San Diego office of Allen Matkins with a practice focusing primarily on Life Sciences, representing a variety of landlords and tenants in the development and leasing of Life Science and Biotech projects. He has successfully completed major leasing transactions totaling more than 40 million square feet in California, the Midwest, and East Coast over the past 25 years, representing some of the nation's leading real estate and end-user companies. Martin also represents a wide variety of clients in the acquisition, disposition, development, financing and ground leasing of shopping centers, industrial projects, office buildings and other commercial and mixed-use projects throughout the country