Now, Then, Later: Perspectives on Walnut Creek’s Changing Times

By Ed Del Beccaro

NOW: 8am April 8, 2019: GROWER’S SQUARE

Latte steaming at an outdoor table at Starbucks on N. California Boulevard, I am reminded of the changes that took place on the edges of downtown during the city’s formative years. On what used to be a city-block-size parking lot until 1982, the two, six-story Grower’s Square office buildings tower across the street. As I sip my hot drink, busy people with cell phones and coffee in hand hurry by with briefcases and knapsacks, most likely on their way to BART. Above the cityscape rises the emerald green summit of Mt. Diablo, vibrant from the recent rains.

As I look at the glow of the Lesher Center for the Arts, I am reminded how commerce and culture stand together. A fruit processing factory then a walnut plant formerly occupied this spot. During the boom years of the 1950’s, money flowed into Walnut Creek, allowing the theater loving city to revitalize its local playhouse, ‘the Nut House’, into a destination attraction.

In the other direction, beyond the bold rust red facade of the Lyric, cranes are constructing a new residential hotel tower on the old McDonald’s site. Walnut Creek is changing again—the next two years will see more new apartments built on the former La Virage restaurant site on N. California Boulevard and a new Marriot Residence Inn open.

THEN: 8am April 8, 1952: WALNUT PLANT

A sharp whistle jolts me as an electric passenger train on the Northern Sacramento Line heads north to Concord. Across the tracks sits the three-story Walnut Growers’ Association Plant. A truck, stacked 14 bags high, drops off bushels of freshly picked local black walnuts to be sorted and cleaned. This plant, covering over an acre, processed 6,600 tons this year. 

Further down the tracks to the south, cars are crossing Mt. Diablo from the Saranap. To my right, plain yellow and beige single-story homes line the road, their kitchens staring straight into the walnut packing plant.  

A whistle blows, signaling that it’s time for a shift change at the factory. Scores of women dressed in white aprons and head scarfs head to work inside the plant. The native blacks they shell are grown in Walnut Creek, San Ramon, and Clayton orchards. Others work at downtown canneries, like the Walnut Creek Canning Company, where 150 tons of locally-grown cherries, tomatoes, pears, other fruits are canned each year. A distinct smell of ripe tomatoes clings to the air mixed with a chlorine scent from the rinse used to clean the walnuts and to kill any worms. 

LATER: 8am April 8, 2028: RESIDENTIAL TOWERS

The sound of screeching brakes startles me. I watch a man jump out of his old red Ford Mustang shouting. It seems he was rear-ended by a dark blue autonomous vehicle in front of Growers Square. The AV car was stopped. A male voice is heard coming from the car, “Sir, this vehicle comes with insurance, please calm down so I can take a picture of your car and send it in.”

Dozens of other driverless cars soar silently past the five and six story residential towers that line both sides of California Boulevard near Ygnacio Valley and the BART Transit Village. A helicopter drone, the size of a football, takes off from the top of the PG&E switch station on Cole. It hovers over the auto accident taking pictures and directs the AV cars to stop on the north bound lane. A calm and soothing female voice asks the driver of the mustang to walk over to the sidewalk so the AV insurance company can interview him.

A voice interrupts my trance. “Sir we noticed your coffee was cold and brought you another cup. Enjoy.” A three-foot robot wearing a green apron holds a tray with a fresh cup of steaming latte.

Sources: Walnut Creek/Arroyo De Las Nuces by George Emanuels 1999; Old Times in Contra Costa by Robert Dara Tatam 1996; 150 Years in Pictures, an Illustrated History of Walnut Creek by Brad Rovanpera 1999

Posted by the Walnut Creek Magazine on Apr 17, 2019 08:35AM.
View original article here.

April 4, 2019, CORFAC International, Benjamin Paltiel, Custom Content Writer

Over the last three decades, commercial real estate has seen tremendous changes — from digitization and automation to the birth of entirely new asset classes. But through all those transformations, there has been a constant demand for local expertise from respected brokers.

Now in its 30th year, CORFAC remains an unparalleled resource for that kind of expertise — an independent network of brokers and a reputable source of unbiased information at a time when the industry is doing more business than ever. And for its members, it serves as an indispensable community of trusted colleagues, advisers and friends. 

“Being a member has had many benefits over the years, not least of which is generating income through referrals thanks to my CORFAC network,” said founding member David Prior, senior managing principal of The Klabin Co./CORFAC International. “But just as important, I have a lot of very close friends here who act as an advisory board to help me run my company. These are intimate relationships with other owners that you can’t build anywhere else.”

In the late 1980s, local and regional brokerage firms were a dying breed. They were being acquired by publicly traded global providers, or merging to create larger networks that could serve clients who operated in multiple markets. Brokers were worried that they would be forced to refer clients to their colleagues in specific markets, even if they were not the best person for the job. 

During a 1986 SIOR conference, the leaders of five noncompeting brokerage firms discussed an independent network of brokers. The idea was to build a network of people who could share information, but who weren’t obligated or incentivized to refer business to one another. The focus would be to keep serving their clients in the best way possible. And so, CORFAC was born.

The five founders reached out to more of their colleagues, and by the time they formally launched CORFAC in 1989, participation had jumped to more than a dozen markets. Among those early members was Ray Lyons, president of Realty Advisors Ltd., Brokerage/CORFAC International in Toronto.

“Being part of CORFAC gives us a bigger footprint, provides an avenue for referral business from other markets and allows us to work with people we know and trust,” Lyons said. “It also helps us keep abreast of new technologies and tools in a changing market.”

Today, CORFAC is the world’s largest network of independent real estate brokers serving the office, industrial and retail markets. CORFAC’s affiliates in 75 U.S. and international markets have completed over 10,000 lease and sale transactions totaling 500M SF and $8B. The network has added 20 new affiliates in the past four years — 10 domestic and 10 international.

While affiliates aren’t required to hold credentials such as SIOR, MCR or CCIM, many still do and Prior said CORFAC boasts a higher percentage of accredited brokers than most worldwide real estate services alternatives. 

And for many CORFAC members, membership goes far beyond the surface level.

“I’ve been a CORFAC member since I joined King Industrial 25 years ago, and I’ve been going to conferences ever since,” said Sim Doughtie, president of King Industrial/CORFAC International and 2019 president of CORFAC International. “For me, it’s not the CORFAC network, it’s really the CORFAC family.”

This feature was produced in collaboration between Bisnow Branded Content and CORFAC International. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

See original BisNow article here.

Click here to download the full report.

Written by Melissa Steinberg

Winners Announced!

Washington, D.C. —CoStar Group, Inc., the data/analytics leader of the commercial real estate industry, just announced this year’s Power Broker Award recipients, recognizing professionals and firms who closed the highest transaction volume in commercial real estate deals and leads in their respective markets.  TRI Commercial Real Estate Services has been recognized as the most active local dealmakers in the Sacramento Market with this prestigious industry award. The CoStar Power Broker Awards also recognize professionals ranging from office leasing, retail leasing, industrial leasing and sales.

For a full list of winners, visit http://costarpowerbrokers.com/power-broker-award-winners/

About CoStar Group, Inc.

CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP) is the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. Founded in 1987, CoStar conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information. Our suite of online services enables clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on commercial property values, market conditions and current availabilities. CoStar Group’s websites attracted an average of approximately 45 million unique monthly visitors in aggregate in the third quarter of 2018. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar Group maintains offices throughout the U.S. and in Europe and Canada with a staff of over 3,600 worldwide, including the industry’s largest professional research organization. For more information, visit www.costargroup.com.          

TRI Commercial Releases Findings in Q4 2018 Office Research Report

Article Published: January 29, 2019, The Registry

SACRAMENTO (January 28, 2019) – Sacramento witnessed a steady decline in vacant space during this most recent economic cycle and reported 10.16% at the end of 2018. The current vacancy rate is now in line with national vacancy for the first time since 2012. “The office sector will continue to perform well, as it has over the last few years – slow and steady increases as it relates to rent growth and demand,” said Vice President, Brandon Sessions. “However, we could see a plateau as mortgage companies, and housing-related sectors consolidate due to the slowing of the housing market.”

Highlights from the report include:

• Rent growth in Sacramento is not only strong compared to the historical average, but also merits attention. After years of negative or minimal gains, rent growth accelerated beginning in 2015 and by the end of 2018 rents outpaced the U.S. average by 200 basis points. Annual rent growth is currently at 3.6%.
• With steady demand and constrained inventory landlords were encouraged to push rents to levels that have typically been unobtainable. These recent gains have especially been strong in Highway 50 Corridor and select suburban submarkets, many of which are witnessing vacancy rates that are below the metro average.
•  Sacramento’s office vacancy decreased due to job growth which continues to outpace the national average with steady demand.
• The government sector propels demand for office space, but the metro will soon receive a boost from the private sector, St. Louis-based health insurer, Centene, a Fortune 100 company, chose Sacramento as its home for a new regional headquarters. This enterprise is expected to build more than one million SF of office space and add approximately 5,000 jobs.

About TRI Commercial/CORFAC International

Founded in 1977, TRI Commercial/CORFAC International is a leading Northern California commercial real estate brokerage and property management (with over 4 million square feet of commercial property under management) firm specializing in San Francisco, East Bay and the Sacramento Metro property markets. The company has expertise in tenant and landlord representation services and helps clients buy and sell commercial and investment-grade property. The company serves office, retail, and land, multifamily and industrial property sectors, with offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Oakland, Roseville, Sacramento, and Rocklin. For more information, visit www.tricommercial.com or call Dina Gouveia in Corporate Marketing at 925.269.3305 CORFAC International is comprised of privately held entrepreneurial firms with expertise in office, industrial and retail properties, tenant and landlord representation, investment sales, multifamily, self-storage, acquisitions and dispositions, property management and corporate services. For more information on the CORFAC call the Chicago headquarters at 224.257.4400 or visit www.corfac.com.

View full article here.

Download Sacramento Q4 2018 Office Market Report here.

The firm’s goal is to provide more than what is expected of a typical broker by offering a full suite of services with a sophisticated platform and regional expertise, says Del Beccaro in this EXCLUSIVE.

By Lisa Brown | January 31, 2019 

Del Beccaro says TRI is developing strategies to capture a bigger slice of middle market businesses.

WALNUT CREEK, CA—In the two short months since Edward Del Beccaro joined TRI Commercial/CORFAC International as executive vice president and East Bay regional manager, he has hired 13 people, is actively recruiting more brokers, moving to larger creative space in Walnut Creek, initiating an expansion of the existing platform in Oakland and adding new commercial real estate services. More than anything though, Del Beccaro is influencing the way TRI Commercial thinks about how it approaches the Bay Area market, GlobeSt.com learns in this exclusive.

The firm is developing strategies to capture that “holy grail” of brokerage services–a bigger slice of middle market businesses not in the Fortune 500 that are largely served by the big five publicly traded commercial brokerage firms. TRI Commercial plans to do this by offering the same sophisticated commercial real estate services that Fortune 500 companies demand and expect–yet target Fortune 5000 companies.

“We’ve already started the process of transforming TRI Commercial into a stronger competitive regional firm with the addition of the Walnut Creek team,” said Charles Wall, chairman of TRI Commercial.

Tom Martindale, president of TRI Commercial, who oversees the operations for more than 100 brokers and staff, noted a big advantage for the independently owned Northern California commercial real estate firm.

“There are deep local roots across all the offices from San Francisco to Oakland, Walnut Creek, Sacramento, Roseville and Rocklin. That is an opportunity because this swath of Northern California which includes Silicon Valley has become one big interconnected market,” Martindale says. “More important than the physical footprint of our operations, however, is the caliber and extraordinary skill sets of our agents in all the markets we cover. Few of our closed transactions involve cookie-cutter deals. They are mostly client-centric, creative solutions. Ed is bringing new energy, a competitiveness and a complementary approach to what we have been doing for 42 years as a company.”

For example, TRI Commercial broker and senior vice president Bill Karr of the Walnut Creek office is the real estate consultant to Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin County Inc. on real estate matters, including leasing space, selecting brokers, buying buildings and performing lease administration services, among other duties.

“The need has come full circle to best serve the clients we are doing business with,” Del Beccaro tells GlobeSt.com. “We can offer comprehensive real estate expertise, knowledge of the local market and its evolving dynamics along with advisory brokerage services. Companies that are now facing increased employee costs as a result of rapidly rising home values resulting in hour and a half commutes are now examining where they do business, all of which impacts commercial real estate needs. So that is how we will approach it moving forward.”

Del Beccaro’s first priority is to grow the East Bay offices of TRI Commercial, and he has already begun that process by bringing on accomplished brokers with expertise to provide ahead of the curve trends, including John Sechser, managing director of retail, and Sonny O’Drobinak, managing director with healthcare real estate services, as well as others who are focused on industrial and office real estate. The firm already has a strong platform of healthcare, industrial and investment services in its Sacramento brokerage operation led by Ed Benoit, principal and managing director. In addition, TRI Commercial is closely watching the convergence of retail and industrial industries driven by e-commerce as those two product types become more aligned.

TRI Commercial is also adding to its property management services and a construction management practice for office tenant improvements. The firm already has a property management presence, with approximately 4.5 million square feet under management, mostly in Sacramento.

Once those pieces and people are in place, Del Beccaro intends to strengthen its regional presence with assistance from some of the company’s new staff, including managing director of corporate marketing and research, Dina Simoni-Gouveia.

“Our goal is to provide more than what is expected of a typical broker. We have an opportunity to offer a full suite of services with a sophisticated platform and regional expertise to win the confidence of the client, and ultimately help them accomplish their business plans,” Del Beccaro said.

View full article here

Dina Simoni-Gouveia joined TRI Commercial/CORFAC International as Managing Director, Corporate Marketing & Research, and will be based in the company’s Walnut Creek office. TRI Commercial has offices in Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Rocklin and Roseville. Dina has 20+ years of research, marketing and public relations experience for various real estate industries including lending, mortgage and commercial real estate services.

See original SF Business Times article here.

Paul O’Drobinak has joined TRI Commercial/CORFAC International as a Senior Associate in the firm’s Walnut Creek office. He specializes in leasing and sales of office, medical and other healthcare-related properties in the North I-680 corridor market. He is experienced with exclusive landlord listings, tenant representation and finding development opportunities. His commercial real estate career started in the Transwestern Walnut Creek office in 2015.

See original SF Business Times article here.

TRI Commercial/CORFAC International Executive Vice President and East Bay Regional Manager Ed Del Beccaro announced that Matt Hatfield has joined TRI Commercial as a Senior Director in the firm’s Walnut Creek office.

Hatfield specializes in representing commercial property owners, landlords, tenants and investors in leasing and sales, site selection and transaction management in the North Contra Costa County market. He is also fluent in advising and consulting with local municipalities on zoning, entitlements and easements as it relates to planned property uses. He has successfully represented the City of Concord in the disposition of office, industrial and city-owned land sites.

“Matt is a great complement to the existing TRI professionals that work in the East Bay’s submarkets as well as the other former Transwestern brokers we are integrating into our operations,” said Ed Del Beccaro.

Prior to TRI Commercial, Hatfield was a broker and senior associate with Transwestern and was the Walnut Creek office Rookie of the Year in 2014. Prior to his career in real estate, he worked for Advanced Office Systems in Concord where he served as a Systems Specialist. A native of the East Bay, Hatfield’s family owns and operates a business in Concord.

Matt Hatfield earned a bachelor’s degree in business marketing from California State University at Chico.

Written by: The Registry Bay Area Real Estate.

View the original article here.

TRI Commercial/CORFAC International launches a Healthcare Services Brokerage Group, and names Sonny O’Drobinak as Managing Director Healthcare Services.

TRI Commercial/CORFAC International President Tom Martindale, SIOR, announced the firm has launched a Healthcare Services Brokerage Group and concurrently named Sonny O’Drobinak as Managing Director Healthcare Services. He will be based in the firm’s Walnut Creek office. The Healthcare Services Brokerage Group includes Executive Vice President and East Bay Regional Manager Ed Del Beccaro and Paul O’Drobinak, Sonny’s son. The group focuses on representing healthcare clients in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. Sonny O’Drobinak has served in the healthcare industry for nearly 30 years.

“By hiring arguably the top expert in his field, we are building one of the preeminent healthcare services brokerage groups in the Northern California. Sonny is an excellent broker yet has professional perspectives on the healthcare property sector from working on the client side as well as in property management. This is an underserved niche in the commercial real estate industry and we intend to excel at it,” said Ed Del Beccaro.

O’Drobinak specializes in medical office leasing, building and land purchases and sales, landlord and tenant representation and site selection for medical property occupiers, as well as work in the senior housing sector, which includes Alzheimer’s and Dementia locations.

O’Drobinak recently had a similar role for Transwestern in Walnut Creek, and prior to Transwestern, he developed the medical division for Grubb & Ellis. Current and past assignments include site selection, lease and sale purchase agreements for a national dialysis clinic in Northern California, marketing and selling medical office buildings (MOBs) of all sizes and brokering MOBs as build-to-suit projects with developers. His work includes dental offices and senior housing locations.

Earlier in his career, and as the director of leasing and operations at PM Realty Group, O’Drobinak managed a 2 million-square-foot portfolio of medical office buildings in seven states for the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).

Sonny O’Drobinak is a Certified Property Manager (CPM®) from the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM®). He earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial management from Purdue University.

Paul O’Drobinak joined TRI Commercial/CORFAC International as a Senior Associate Office & Medical and will focus on leasing and selling office, medical and other healthcare-related properties in the I-680 Corridor Market. He began his career in 2015 at Transwestern and has a Bachelor of Science in Health Science from California State University at Chico.

Written by:  The Registry Bay Area Real Estate.

View the original article here.