Two OC real estate companies have combined with counterparts here and in Arizona.
Park Place Partners Inc., an Irvine-based brokerage that handles sales of raw land or land ready for homebuilding, is becoming part of Land Advisors Organization of Scottsdale.
And last week, Newport Beach’s Voit Cos., which runs a development business as well as one of the county’s biggest commercial real estate brokerages, said it was adding the team from Costa Mesa-based BKM Develop-ment LLC to its business.
The deals come as the area’s real estate companies are re-evaluating the way they do business in the industry’s prolonged downturn.
In Park Place’s case, the company decided it needed more land outside California to market to customers, Pres-ident Tom Reimers said.
The company is set to be renamed Park Place Land Advisors. Park Place’s principals at the Irvine office are staying on with no change in daily activity, according to Reimers.
In the case of BKM, President Brian Malliet is joining Voit as a partner, according to the companies.
It’s a joining of forces of two of OC’s largest developers. BKM was the biggest developer of commercial properties in the county as recently as 2006, based on square footage completed. Voit Development Co. was the area’s largest developer in 2005, according to Business Journal data.
Park Place already claimed to be California’s largest pure land broker, after Irvine-based competitor O’Donnell/Atkins began winding down its operations late last year.
Much of Park Place’s business is in rural parts of the state, including in the Inland Empire, Central Valley and Sacramento area.
Other big competing land brokers in OC include Irvine-based Whittlesey Doyle and Hoffman Co., also of Irvine.
Land Advisors has offices in Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Texas and is looking to expand.
The deal “gives us a better opportunity to compete” with national brokers such as Eastdil Secured LLC and CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. that also handle commercial property deals, Reimers said.
Voit’s buy of BKM is part of its efforts to rebrand itself.
The company now plans to go by Voit Real Estate Services.
The changes are being made in part to better market the company’s services to banks and other owners of challenged real estate projects, Chief Executive Robert Voit said.
The company said it plans to provide a range of services, including asset services, construction management, brokering, entitlement work and developing exit strategies.
The under-fire commercial market “needs more real estate brains,” Voit said.
Malliet, who previously worked for Voit starting in the late 1980s and headed up the company’s development efforts for about five years, will be spearheading much of the company’s new initiatives, said Robert Voit.
BKM had built itself into one of the larger local developers in recent years, largely by buying, fixing up and then selling small and midsize industrial and office buildings.
In 2006, the company completed nearly 800,000 square feet of development in OC, totaling some 20% of the county’s finished projects. Projects included the BKM Red Hill Business Center, a 19-building, industrial complex next to John Wayne Airport in Costa Mesa, which sold out for $30 million.
Among big redevelopments, BKM worked on a 554,000-square-foot office and distribution campus in Cypress it bought in 2005 that now includes the headquarters for shoemaker Vans Inc., part of VF Corp.
Voit’s biggest recent year for local development activity was in 2005, when it completed the redevelopment of a former 37.5-acre Steelcase Inc. facility, now known as Tustin Gateway Business Park. The 19-building, 500,000-square-foot industrial park fronts the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.
