Burke Officers Buy Brokerage From Founder
Burke Commercial Real Estate founder William B. Burke has sold the medium-size brokerage to two of its officers.
Exact terms weren’t disclosed Thursday, but both parties said little money changed hands. Instead, Burke will get a percentage of the future profits of the company, which will keep his name.
The brokerage has been sold to Kenneth E. Hulbert, the company’s president and CEO, and Jerry M. Adams, vice president and managing partner.
The firm employs almost 100 brokers in offices in Irvine, Orange, Riverside and Las Vegas. The new owners said they would hire a few more brokers soon.
The sale comes amid tough times for local brokerages. Demand from tenants for office and some types of factory space is way down; few buildings are selling because little credit is available to buy them.
So, like other brokerages, Burke hasn’t been as profitable lately as it was in the 1980s, when the commercial real estate market was booming. The company then was “extremely profitable,” Burke said.
Burke, who turned 60 last year, said he was selling because he would have to spend a lot more time making the company highly profitable again.
“It takes close, full-time attention to run one of these things,” he said, “and I don’t want to spend that much time working.”
The company is one of the oldest brokerages in the county; it has been around in one form or another since 1968. And it has carved a niche in the market for industrial buildings that should protect it in the future, said the new owners.
The firm will try to attract more seasoned brokers with its commission split--the way a company and its brokers split the profit on each deal. Burke says its split is much more generous than the industry average because it increases from 50-50 to as much as 70% for the broker depending on how much business the broker brings in. Senior brokers who are made a partner also share in profits at Burke.
“We believe the market will come back,” said Hulbert, who will remain as president. But it won’t be a roaring market like the 1980s boom, and it will be tougher to make a buck if the brokers are not experienced.
Adams, the other new owner, will take Burke’s old job as chairman of the brokerage.
Burke Commercial Development and Burke Asset Management, also owned by William Burke and headquartered in Irvine, were not part of the deal. Burke Commercial builds industrial buildings and Burke Asset manages them.
Separately, the brokerage said this week that it represented Tokos Medical Corp., a maker of pregnancy-monitoring equipment, in renewing a seven-year lease for an office and warehouse building of 115,000 square feet at the Irvine Corporate Center in Santa Ana.
The lease was valued at $7.2 million. Burke also represented Haseko Inc., the owner of the business park on East Dyer Road near the Costa Mesa Freeway.
