Regional Firm to Focus on Brokerage and Management Services
Bucking the trend toward consolidation in the commercial real estate services business, four veteran brokers and property managers have formed a Newport Beach-based company called Tiarna Real Estate Services Inc.
“We want to be a regional firm,” said Thomas McAndrews, president of the company and former president of real estate management services at Charles Dunn Co.
McAndrews’ partners in the venture are Scott Alleborn and Robert Deaton, both former regional managers with Dunn, and James Bannan, a former Trammell Crow Co. vice president. Alleborn is the company’s executive vice president, Deaton is executive vice president of its Arizona operations, and Bannan is executive vice president for brokerage.
McAndrews said Tiarna, a Gaelic word meaning landlord, will focus on brokerage, property management and advisory services for landlords. He said the company, which has offices in Newport Beach, Encino and Scottsdale, Ariz., expects to have offices in all major California and Arizona markets. A San Francisco office is to open soon.
“So many of the national and global players have bought so many of the good regional firms that we think it has eliminated a type of regional firm that a lot of individuals and institutional owners of real estate would prefer to deal with--a smaller firm in which you’re dealing with the principals,” McAndrews said. He said Tiarna has opened its doors with leasing and management contracts for 2 million square feet of office and industrial space, including one contract with a pension fund advisor.
Much of the consolidation in property management and other real estate services occurred several years ago. But as recently as October, Beverly Hills-based Kennedy-Wilson Inc. acquired Dallas-based Fults & Associates Inc. brokerage and property management firm as part of a plan to expand its nationwide property management portfolio to 100 million square feet by the end of 2000.
In March 1998, Texas real estate giant Trammell Crow bought Los Angeles-based Tooley & Co., one of California’s largest office property management firms, for $23.3 million.
