2 Newport Beach Property Firms Decide to Merge : Real estate: The new company, Optima Asset Management Services Inc., will manage 2.5 million square feet of office, retail, industrial and residential space.

Two property management companies based here--Optima Asset Management and Grant Real Estate Management--on Tuesday announced their merger into a new company, Optima Asset Management Services Inc.

It brings 2.5 million square feet of office, retail, industrial and residential property under one management company. Optima Asset Management contributed 1.7 million square feet to the total and Grant the rest.

The combined company has under contract properties scattered throughout Southern California and Arizona, including 1600 Dove St., a well-appointed mid-rise in Newport Beach.

Douglas C. Morehead will remain president of the new Optima. Taylor Grant, president of Grant Real Estate Management, will serve as chief executive officer.

Some of the combined company’s institutional clients include Massachusetts Mutual, Canada Life Assurance, Allstate Life Insurance, Pacific First Bank and Royal Trust Bank of Switzerland, which all own Southland buildings.

After combining the Grant and Optima management staffs, the company will employ 17 people. No employees were laid off in the merger, Morehead said.

Optima Asset Management Services has offices in Newport Beach, Santa Ana, San Bernardino County and Riverside County.

Property management companies are facing a lot more competition these days. Over the past two years, dozens of brokerages and developers have added property management to their services, in a bid to counter the revenue lost during a slow real estate market. The idea is to concentrate on existing property because few new buildings are coming on line.

“People who for years have made a business out of property management are being hurt by all these newcomers hanging out shingles saying, ‘I’m a property manager now,’ ” said Morehead, who opened his property management firm in 1984.

Both Optima and 10-year-old Grant suffered during the recession. In 1988, the peak of the real estate boom, Optima managed about 3 million square feet of property--nearly double the amount it managed at the time of the merger.

Even so, Morehead said, “neither firm did this because it was going broke. We merged out of strength rather than weakness.”