Tenant brokerage Cresa Partners of Orange County LP gets an up-close view into the operations of some of OC’s best-known businesses.
In June, Cresa helped Irvine-based chipmaker Microsemi Corp. ink a deal to move its headquarters to Aliso Viejo. The 109,000-square-foot lease will more than triple the size of the headquarters of the company, which has a market value of about $1.4 billion.
The brokerage also helped Tustin-based Sunwest Bank in its search for new space for the majority of its local operations, which in May resulted in a lease for space at an Irvine high rise that will hold about 85 people.
Cresa and its project management team also worked with Hyundai Motor America Inc. in putting together plans for the car maker’s new North American headquarters, which is going up in Fountain Valley.
“We want to be the tenant rep of record for the area’s best companies,” said Jeff Manley, a principal at Cresa.
Hands-On Helps
Hands-on dealings with some of the county’s premier companies appear to have worn off on the commercial real estate brokerage.
Cresa Partners ranks No. 17 in the large companies category on the Business Journal’s third-annual Best Places to Work list. Its Newport Beach office has about 55 employees.
The list was compiled for the Business Journal by Harrisburg, Pa.-based Best Companies Group, an independent workplace researcher that managed the registration process (see Methodology, page 26).
Cresa is one of three commercial brokerages in this week’s large-company category, joining Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. and Dallas-based Stream Realty Partners LP.
A different way of approaching internal operations is what distinguishes Cresa from others in the commercial brokerage business, officials for the company said last week.
“Collaboration sets us apart,” Manley said. “In other (brokerages), there’s locks on the doors and the file cabinets,” as brokers try to keep data on their core clients and leads to themselves.
At Cresa, “I can walk into any office here, and get information,” Manley said. “It’s shared.”
The company offers financial incentives that encourage collaboration with an eye of fostering success for the office at large, according to managing director Patrick Murphy, who joined Cresa in May as part of the office’s growth plans.
Midyear and year-end bonuses are the norm for Cresa, whose high-end Newport Center offices overlook Fashion Island and the Pacific Ocean.
If the company goes well above expectation any year—which has happened about four or five times since 2004—all employees are invited on a weekend trip and allowed to bring a guest. Las Vegas is the most frequent destination.
Beyond that, the key financial incentive in Cresa includes part ownership in the local office.
“Every person in the office has the potential to be a shareholder,” Manley said.
There are currently nine senior-level shareholders in the local office, and about 24 total shareholders in the office.
Recent History
The company was formed in 2004, when a number of employees left what was then the local operations of tenant rep firm Staubach Co. and became an affiliate of Boston-based Cresa Partners LLC.
The biggest change in that move was the “transition to the shareholder mentality,” Manley said.
The local Cresa office was initially run by Kevin Hayes Sr., a longtime area real estate presence. He still has an office at Cresa, but isn’t involved in day-to-day operations at the company.
In recent years, Manley and fellow Prin-cipal Ken Ward have run operations at the Newport Beach office. They’re now turning more of their attention to brokering deals and passing on management duties to Murphy.
While the area’s commercial real estate market has been in a multi-year slump, it’s been a good time to be in the tenant brokerage business. With vacancy rates for offices still in the high teens, brokers who represent tenants or buyers in a lease or sale generally have the upper hand in negotiations.
“We’ve been wearing Cheshire Cat smiles the past couple years,” Manley said.
The company’s office in Newport Center counts about 32 brokers. Cresa ranked as the No. 8 commercial brokerage here and the largest local tenant rep firm in 2010.
It worked on more than $480 million worth of leases and sales, according to the Business Journal’s April list of commercial brokers, which was up nearly 70% from 2009 levels.
The company is looking to add both senior-level and other positions over the next year, according to Murphy.
New employees can expect to join in on family-friendly company perks like a summer barbeque held at the Newport Dunes, golf outings, tickets to Angels games, Hal-loween parties, Easter Egg hunts at the office and a Christmas party.
“I was Santa Claus one year,” Manley said.
