Orange County’s two largest commercial real estate brokerages that focus on representing tenants have joined forces.
New York-based Savills Studley, whose local office is based in Irvine, last week completed the acquisition of Cresa Orange County, the Newport Beach affiliate of Cresa LLC in Boston.
The two Orange County offices are merging their operations as a result of the acquisition and will operate as Savills Studley.
The combined firm will have 35 brokers and about 56 employees.
The OC office of Savills Studley is believed to be the largest tenant advisory group in the Western U.S. by headcount.
The firm’s newly combined OC office is projected to do upwards of $750 million in deal volume this year, according to Pat Murphy, the former managing principal of Cresa Orange County.
That would comfortably place the firm among the top 10 local brokerages in terms of deal volume, according to the Business Journal’s latest list of area commercial brokerages.
Murphy will co-manage the combined local office, along with Royce Sharf, executive vice president of Savills Studley.
Sharf founded Studley Inc.’s local office in 1987 and operated it until its sale to Savills three years ago.
The combined firm plans to consolidate offices in a new location around Newport Center this year, Sharf said.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Cresa offices are typically independently owned and operated by individual partners.
Savills Studley, a unit of London-based Savills PLC, has bought other Cresa offices in recent years. In 2015 it acquired the Silicon Valley offices that previously operated under the Cresa San Jose and Cresa Palo Alto names, as well as a location in North Carolina.
The acquisition “further demonstrates our dedication to continuing to invest in West Coast hubs following our Silicon Valley expansion two years ago,” said Savills Studley President Michael Colacino in a statement.
The changes to the Orange County office come as Cresa LLC is nearing a deal to restructure its overall organization, which would result in a roll-up of many of its nearly 70 independently owned offices into a single entity, according to a report last month in New York’s Real Deal magazine.
Tenant Focus
The combined OC office will complement its core tenant representation with transaction management, project administration and other related services, the company said.
“We’re still going to be 100% geared towards (serving) occupiers of real estate,” Sharf said. “By combining forces, we are uniquely positioned to take the conflict-free platform to the next level.”
Some of the main industries that the combined company’s brokers focus on are the aerospace, technology and professional services sectors.
Notable area companies that have worked with the firms in recent years include technology companies Western Digital Corp. and Panasonic Avionics; law firms Rutan & Tucker LLP and Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth P.C.; insurer Pacific Life, tech accessories maker Mophie Inc., and apparel company Fox Head Inc.
In addition to its local business, the company said there will be an enhanced focus on industrial services and the Inland Empire, where the company already has a presence.
Roughly a third of the combined office’s business takes place outside of OC, Murphy said.
“What attracted us to (Savills Studley) is that they’re a highly capitalized company with resources across the globe,” said Murphy, a former local executive at Newport Beach-based Koll Co. “Those resources will help us serve our clients’ needs.”
Both local offices of Savills Studley and Cresa Orange County have been part of other notable transactions in the past few years.
Savills PLC’s 2014 buy the 25-office U.S. operation of Studley Inc. was reported to be worth $260 million.
Cresa Orange County merged with another local operation, the Newport Beach office of tenant representation firm Travers Realty Corp., later that year.
