Great Western Closes Commercial Real Estate Unit

Great Western Financial Corp. on Tuesday closed its commercial real estate division in Orange, turning down an offer led by many of the division’s 42 agents to take over the operation.

Agents and some of the division’s five staff members, who were told 2 weeks ago that their positions would be lost, said they had raised $600,000 to buy assets of the brokerage and take over its multiyear lease. When Vice President Del Wall told them Tuesday morning that the offer had been rejected, agents hurried to box their belongings before the doors shut for good at 5:30 p.m.

Beverly Hills-based Great Western, which has assets of about $35 billion and is parent of Great Western Savings Bank, said its long-term real estate strategy for some time has been to “de-emphasize” commercial real estate and concentrate on the sale of single-family homes.

“It does not fit with our focus,” said Lynn Taylor, a Great Western spokeswoman.

Great Western purchased the commercial real estate brokerage from Walker & Lee in 1983, and last year moved its offices to the ground floor of the new Transamerica high-rise.

Taylor said the division had net commissions of $500,000 in 1988, compared to $55 million in net commissions for Great Western’s residential real estate operations.

She said the agents’ offer was turned down because it had been “found to be deficient in many respects.” She declined to elaborate.

Wall said Great Western officials originally responded positively to the offer, and he was shocked when they turned it down.

“Early Monday, they talked about making a few changes, then at the end of the day, they said there would be no deal,” Wall said.