COMMERCIAL
Santa Ana-based Grubb & Ellis Co., which has made plenty of news in the past month, now appears to be smoothing the way for a shakeup of its board.
The real estate brokerage and investor last month announced a big refinancing plan, including a potential $100 million infusion from institutional investors.
That deal should allow the company, which last week reported a third-quarter loss of $21.4 million, to solve its near-term debt problems. It would eliminate nearly $67 million of near-term debt and also provide money to fund some near-term growth.
The names of all the investors, which include Boston’s FMR LLC, haven’t been disclosed. Recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Grubb’s preparing for some potential changes, possibly at the request of those investors.
The new investors—who effectively would own about half of Grubb’s outstanding shares—could quickly gain heavy influence on the company’s board if the changes are approved.
A proxy statement filed Nov. 6 shows that the company is pushing to declassify its board during a shareholder meeting slated for next month. This declassification would make its members stand for election every year for one-year terms.
Grubb’s eight-person board currently is “classified,” with members elected in staggered years for three-year terms.
Classified boards are seen as harder to shake up, because it would take several annual shareholder meetings to do so. A declassified board could be dislodged in a single meeting.
If the proposal is adopted, Gary Hunt, who steps down as interim chief executive this week, said he also would step down from his board position.
His spot would be taken over by Thomas D’Arcy, who last week was named the company’s president and chief executive.
Grubb last saw a battle to shake up its board about a year ago, when former chairman Tony Thompson waged a losing proxy battle attempting to rejoin the company’s board.
Thompson, founder of Irvine’s Thompson National Properties, has said he’s no longer interested in rejoining the board.
Grubb was bought in a late 2007 acquisition by Thompson’s NNN Realty Advisors Inc., which kept the better-known Grubb name.
Summit Leases
Aliso Viejo-based Parker Properties is looking local to lease up two new buildings at the Aliso Viejo Summit Office Campus.
The developer, whose two latest buildings at 20 and 30 Enterprise were built in a venture with RREEF Alternative Investments, a unit of Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG, just found two tenants in its backyard to take up about 30,000 square feet of space at those offices.
In the larger of the two deals, Marvell Semiconductor Inc., a semiconductor design company, is planning to relocate is local office from elsewhere in Aliso Viejo to 22,045 square feet of space on the second floor of 30 Enterprise.
Santa Clara-based Marvell Semiconductor has earned close to $3 billion this year and it counts about 90 local employees. The new office will hold some lab space for the company’s engineers to test micro chips for cellular devices.
Likewise, LaBarre Oksnee Insurance Agency Inc. is relocating its corporate headquarters from Laguna Beach to 8,036 square feet of space on the first floor of 30 Enterprise. That’s almost a doubling of space for LaBarre Oksnee, which specializes in insuring homeowner and condominium associations. It has about 21 local employees.
Ted Snell, Allison Schneider, Carol Trapani and Jacob Stickel of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. represented the landlord in both deals.
At 136,695 square feet, 30 Enterprise is now more than 60% full, according to Russ Parker, vice chairman of the developer. Local companies are looking to get “more bang for their buck” in terms of leasing space and local amenities, he said
The developer is in talks with one large tenant for the other new building at 20 Enterprise, which is 117,856 square feet, according to Parker. If that lease gets completed, the building, which is being held for larger users than in 30 Enterprise, would be nearly 70% leased, he said.
Voit Reloads
The top brokerage team for Newport Beach’s Voit Real Estate Services is getting a makeover.
Louis Tomaselli, executive vice president with Voit’s Orange office, announced he was stepping down from the company in late October. He’d been with Voit for more than 20 years. Tomaselli was part of one of the area’s most active brokerage teams, particularly in North and Central County’s industrial and office markets.
The team included partner Mitch Zehner and four other people.
The six-person Voit team is continuing, and it has been renamed the Zehner Group. Broker Seth Davenport now is a full partner with the group.
