CORFAC News

Sacramento, CA (May 7, 2012) – TRI Commercial/CORFAC International Senior Vice President and Regional Manager Ed Benoit announced that four accomplished commercial real estate professionals from Grubb & Ellis have joined TRI in Sacramento while concurrently, two former Grubb & Ellis brokers have joined the company in San Francisco.

“We are thrilled to strengthen our presence in Sacramento with high-caliber people that have the level of experience and proven track records in commercial brokerage services as Steve Griffin, Greg Redman, CCIM, Graham Clemons, CCIM and Richard Smith,” said Benoit, who added that they will be located in an office in the Point West submarket of the capital city and joined by TRI veterans Ned Strong and Keith Tochterman. Point West is near Cal Expo and Arden Fair Mall and a few minutes by car east of downtown Sacramento.

TRI Commercial maintains a prominent brokerage services office in Roseville while its property management, IT and administrative staff is in Rocklin.

One of the Sacramento metro region’s top producing brokers, Griffin said he joined TRI because of its strong regional focus and entrepreneurial culture.

“Steve came up in the business with companies like Bishop Hawk and Schneider Commercial Real Estate and they were regional powerhouses, so TRI is a good fit for him. We are known for our solid reputation as good guys and a fun place to work without any corporate bureaucracy – plus we have the best commission splits in the industry,” said Benoit.

Steve Griffin joins TRI as a Senior Vice President, Investment Services Group.  The 30-year commercial real estate veteran was the top producing investment professional in Sacramento for Grubb & Ellis during the past 15 years. He joined Grubb & Ellis in July 1998 when the company acquired Bishop Hawk. Earlier in his career he was with The Galbreath Company of California Inc. and also with Schneider Commercial Real Estate. Griffin specializes in buying and selling office, retail and industrial properties on behalf of his clients and has won numerous sales awards, including ‘most sales of the year,’ ‘largest sale of the year’ and ‘top producer.’ Griffin is heavily involved in community affairs particularly in Elk Grove, where he served on the Board of Elk Grove’s Chamber of Commerce and was the chamber’s president in 2010. He is also a past-president of Rotary Club of Elk Grove and served on the Elk Grove Community Foundation.

Greg Redman joins TRI as an Industrial Specialist and will focus on the lease and sale of warehouse, distribution, manufacturing and logistics center facilities throughout the Sacramento metro region. He started in the commercial real estate industry in 1985 in St. Louis MO and relocated to the Sacramento area in 1993. His experience includes industrial sales and leasing, office sales and leasing, retail sales and leasing, land sales, and investment sales. Redman has been involved in transactions with Heritage Hotel Group, General Electric, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Boise Cascade, Qwest Communications Corp, Laufen International, Orkin Pest Control, Reed Elsevier, Chicago Title Company, Equity Programs, Paychecks, Reynen and Bardis Development and numerous other national, regional, and local companies. He joined Grubb & Ellis in 2007 and was previously affiliated with Bishop Powers Commercial Real Estate, Hallwood Commercial Real Estate and Equitec Properties Co. Redman earned the CCIM designation from the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute in 1996.

Graham Clemons, CCIM, joins TRI as Senior Retail Advisor, Retail Commercial Services Group and works in the metro Sacramento market representing retail tenants, as well as anchor shopping center leasing, owner/user sales and land sales with a focus on retail occupiers. He joined Grubb & Ellis in 2007 after a six-year period with Bishop Powers Commercial Real Estate and earlier in his career he was a non-touring golf professional. Clemons is affiliated with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Sacramento Association of Commercial Realtors (ACRE). His partial client list includes Donahue Schriber, USA Properties, Century Commercial Management, CVS, GEICO Insurance, Office Max, Kelly Moore Paint Co.  and Round Table Pizza.

Richard Smith is a Senior Retail Marketing Consultant and concentrates on the sale and leasing of retail properties throughout the Central Valley from Redding to Modesto. For the past 10 years he was one of the top producers in the retail division for the Sacramento office of Grubb & Ellis and represented owners, occupiers and tenants in retail transactions. He was with Grubb & Ellis since 1985. In landlord representation work, Smith has exclusively represented Diversified Properties at Placer Center Plaza and Roseville Commercial Center and Metro Properties at San Juan Center. He has represented dozens of tenants including Ace Hardware, Verizon Cellular, The Office Depot, Denny’s, Subway Sandwiches, Rite Aid and the Salvation Army. Smith is affiliated with the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and is a Commander in the United State Coast Guard Reserve.

In San Francisco, Janine Watson, SIOR and LEED AP has joined as Senior Vice President and will focus on the office market with both tenant and landlord representation while Ken Brownell is a new TRI Senior Vice President and specializes in retail brokerage services for property owners and tenants.

Janine Watson started with Grubb & Ellis during the late-1980s in the East Bay and then moved to San Francisco where she predominantly worked for Pacific Union Commercial before returning to Grubb & Ellis about three years ago. She has achieved SIOR status as an office leasing broker, which symbolizes the top 15% of commercial agents nationwide and more recently earned the LEEP AP designation from the U.S. Green Building Council.  LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building project is environmentally responsible, profitable and a healthy place to live and work.

Prior to Grubb & Ellis, Ken Brownell was president and co-owner of Blatteis Realty. Earlier he ran his own firm Brick and Mortar. For more than 25 years Brownell has been a retail real estate specialist and involved with retail developments in San Francisco and the San Francisco Peninsula. He has participated in every type of real estate activity on behalf of his clients, including sales, leasing, consultation, development, arbitration, expert witness testimony, appraisal and currently manages a portfolio of high-end retail parcels for his clients in San Francisco.

About TRI Commercial/CORFAC International
In 1977, TRI Commercial established itself as a full service real estate firm with an innovative spirit and an uncompromising dedication to serving client’s needs. Today, the company has offices in San Francisco, Oakland, Roseville, Rocklin, Walnut Creek and once again Sacramento. As an affiliate of CORFAC International, TRI offers national and international transaction management and corporate services. Corporate Facility Advisors, or abbreviated as CORFAC International, is distinguished by the way it manages multi-market commercial real estate assignments on behalf of corporate entities and privately owned companies. CORFAC is comprised of privately held entrepreneurial firms with expertise in office, industrial and retail real estate leasing and investment sales, multifamily property acquisitions and dispositions, property management and corporate services. CORFAC International has market reach in 65 countries worldwide. In recent years, CORFAC firms have averaged 10,000 completed transactions annually encompassing nearly 100 million square feet and valued at more than $6 billion. For more information on CORFAC, contact 703.532.6160 or visit www.corfac.com.