Longtime Bay Area CRE Companies Form Partnership
Two longtime San Francisco-based commercial real estate companies have formed a new subsidiary and tapped a veteran broker to lead it.
Commercial brokerage Starboard Commercial Real Estate and developer Brookwood Group have formed Brookwood Starboard, a full-service CRE firm comprising developers, brokers and strategic advisers. It will be led by new executive director Barry Bram.
The partnership will focus on advisory, brokerage and development management with a focus on high-density urban and transit-oriented projects. Bram, who spent over 30 years with TRI Commercial Real Estate, said he found the opportunity to lead Brookwood Starboard appealing.
"It's a unique set of services you can approach a client with," Bram said. "It's a great opportunity and also a good time for me to expand beyond what I was doing at TRI and the changes that were going on there."
The new entity will pair Starboard's expertise in representing high net worth individuals and partnerships with Brookwood's focus, which Brookwood Group CEO Shepherd Heery said in recent years has primarily been strategic advisory for owners and other clients lacking CRE expertise.
Brookwood, which Heery said worked with Salesforce on its purchase of Mission Bay land (before the sale of that land to the Golden State Warriors), often works under nondisclosure agreements, or on a "confidential and strategic basis," its website states.
Both Starboard and Brookwood still exist, with their new joint venture acting as a subsidiary, according to a spokesperson.
Founded in San Francisco in 1991, Starboard works with office tenants and owners around the Bay Area. In 2000, it became the San Francisco member of TCN Worldwide, a consortium of independent brokerage firms with over 60 offices.
Recent Starboard deals include last year's $7.75M sale of San Francisco's 598 Bryant St. to Realtex, an S.F.-based developer, and the $14.5M sale of 570 Market St. to Frontier Group, which submitted plans for a 29-story hotel last year.
Brookwood Group works with public and private sector owners, investors and tenants and was founded in 1989, currently holding principal offices in S.F., Atlanta and Dallas. Recent Bay Area work includes efforts with San Mateo County's Jefferson Union High School District on a faculty and staff housing development.
Hans Hansson, a co-founding partner of Brookwood Starboard and president of Starboard Commercial Real Estate, said a lot of the value in the new joint enterprise is its offering of a "one-stop shop" for clients.
"I think the 'one-stop' aspect for the types of deals that we're doing is the unique selling proposition," he said. "That's what we're really creating that's different from what's currently out there from anybody else that I'm aware of."
