COMMERCIAL
Sherry Bower, long one of Orange County’s most prominent female real estate executives, is back at CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.
Bower was named managing director for the brokerage’s asset services division, handling the five-county Southern California region, which includes OC, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
She’ll oversee more than 80 million square feet and manage more than 200 workers in her new role.
Bower will be splitting her time between the company’s Newport Beach and Los Angeles offices.
Bower’s main objectives “are to make sure that we continue to have a real high level of service and to grow the Southern California portfolio,” she said.
Locally, where CB Richard Ellis is by far the largest property manager, not too much change is expected.
OC-based asset services will continue to be overseen by Managing Director Cindy Burger, with Bower working with her, the company said.
Bower stepped back from CB Richard Ellis in mid-2007. In her last position, she had been leading OC brokerage operations for the company. It was one of several positions she’d held at the company since joining in 1982.
Retiring from the brokerage business in 2007 turned out to be a well-timed decision as the area’s commercial brokerage business soon went into a slump that’s yet to fully recover.
“I missed the worst,” Bower said.
The company pulled her back into the fold for her experience in the transaction and management sides of the business as CB Richard Ellis works on integrating those things in Southern California.
Sharp Sale
One of Huntington Beach’s largest industrial buildings is up for sale.
Japan’s Sharp Electronics Corp. recently put its Bolsa Avenue warehouse, which totals about 493,000 square feet of space, on the market.
The Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. has the listing for the building and 23 acres of land near Springdale Avenue.
The asking price for the building, which counts about 94,000 square feet of office space, is $95 per square foot, according to Jeff Chiate, executive director for Cushman & Wakefield. At that price, the building would sell for nearly $47 million.
There’s only been one industrial property in OC to trade hands at a higher price in the past 18 months, when Laguna Hill’s Saddleback Business Park sold for $62.3 million.
Sharp announced in 2002 that it would be
running its solar systems division at the Huntington Beach site. That division ran the sales, marketing and engineering of Sharp’s solar energy products in North America and South America.
The company recently moved the building’s warehouse operations to the Inland Empire, according to Chiate.
The Sharp building, at 5901 Bolsa Ave., also is available for lease at a monthly rent of 45 cents per square foot, according to CoStar Group Inc.
Collins Snapped Up
Newport Beach-based brokerage Collins Commercial Corp. has been acquired by larger local competitor Daum Commercial Real Estate Services of Los Angeles.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The acquisition involves more than 25 sales and staff members from Collins, which ranked No. 20 in the Business Journal’s April list of largest area brokers with about $150 million in local leases and sales in 2009.
Daum ranked No. 8 with $400 million in business here last year.
Collins’ local office will be relocating to Daum’s nearby Newport Beach location, while Daum’s Inland Empire operations are moving into Collins’ Ontario office.
Michael Collins, formerly the principal of Collins Commercial, will become vice chairman of Daum.
Daum Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Nubel said his company is looking to buy more small commercial brokerage companies in Southern California and Arizona.
“We see 2010 as an optimal moment for growth and expect to find additional well-suited opportunities,” Nubel said in a statement.
