News
Transwestern Cracks Walnut Creek
June 6, 2012
| You've heard the expression, “Go west, young man”? Well,Transwestern just went east, opening a new office in Walnut Creek. The 17-person office includes 10 brokers that came over from Grubb & Ellis (and they didn’t even have to hitch up any wagons). |
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| Yesterday we chatted with the new office’s managing director Ed Del Beccaro, who tells us that collectively, they’ve brought over some 4M SF of listings, making this the fourth-largest commercial RE firm in the key I-680 corridor. While Transwestern has had property management and transactional professionals in San Francisco for more than a decade, this is the firm’s first major office in the East Bay region. Eventually, the company plans to expand, opening satellites in Pleasanton and Oakland. Ed spent the past two years with Grubb and before that was with Colliers for 11. |
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| Ed brought over Hoffman’s 3000 Oak, a mid-rise, among his other listings (along with a bunch of paperwork). Rounding out the Walnut Creek office are SVPs Scott Ellis (who reps Metroplex and Sutter Square), Bob Maderious, and John Sechser (Century Plaza), VPs Tom Caple (757 Arnold), Sonny O’Drobinak, Terry Vani, and Trigger Reital (3000 Oak, with Ed) senior associate Matt Hurd, and associate Colby Mikulich. They’ve set up shop temporarily at 1900 N California St, but early next week they’ll pick one of two options under consideration as their permanent address. |
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| West Region president George Garfield tells us his focus has been to build in several important geographies on the West Coast, consistent with Transwestern’s firm-wide growth including 85 producers nationally. The Bay Area, where Transwestern has 10M SF under management (and just added SVP David Ford, another Grubb vet, to oversee the expansion of the NorCal portfolio), is just one of them. George, snapped at a Bisnow event, calls the addition of Ed’s team a significant piece of his strategy to have all the biz lines—leasing, investment sales, development, construction, and management—up and running in the Bay Area. But equally important are LA, Seattle, and Orange County, where Transwestern has re-established its brokerage office. |
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| Somewhere on this property we hid our secret pecan pie recipe, can you find it? Ed says that, given the East Bay’s 4.3 million people, the Port of Oakland (above), and major universities, “All the stuff that allows Silicon Valley and San Francisco to prosper is across the Bay.” Near-term plans are to open a permanent space by the end of June and grow Walnut Creek to 20 brokers, covering all the service lines. Ed will be recruiting brokers for multifamily, industrial, and institutional investment. |
