Bigger is better - San Francisco Business Times:

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Fogg, a former Staubach broker who is now a managing directorat JLL, didn't know if he couldc help the client out. His knowledge of commercialo real estate in Kazakhstabn wassomewhat limited. But he placedc a call to Michel Seifer, managing directoe in charge of capital marketsfor JLL's San Franciscoi office. "It turned out that we knew these guys inKazakhstabn -- one of them is ex-JLL -- and we had a guy in Germanyu who would definitely help," recalled Fogg. "It was something I coulc never have done at While real estate is an inherentlulocal business, Fogg's story shows how increasint globalization benefits the few international powerhouse firms like JLL.
Over the past three years, JLL's San Francisco office, headed by Internationaol DirectorElizabeth Hearle, has carved out a positiojn as a giant that has the abilityt to serve Fortune 500 companies with complex real estatwe needs in far-flung cities. And with the purchass of Staubachfor $613 million, which closed July 7, JLL becamr even more of a local powerhouse, beefinvg up the brokerage business by adding 52 Staubachy employees and doubling the number of JLL tenantr brokers. Since 2006, JLL's Northern Californiza operation has gone from 622 employeex to875 today.
In 2007, the office had $700 millio in capital markets transactions anddid $843 milliom in leasing transactions, more than double the totals from 2006. Meanwhilew the project management groupdid $525 milliohn in business and deals completed by the hotel transactionzs group totaled $512 million. The leasing led by star brokersWes Powell, David Churto and Chris Roeder, increased its transactiones from 2.2 million square feet in 2006 to 9.1 millionm square feet in 2008. The growt has allowed JLL to beef up on service that most brokerages can onlydreak of. At a time when all real estat e services firms are scrambling to acquire expertise on the intricaciess ofthe U.S.
Green Building Council'as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Desigbnrating system, JLL has a team of 25 employees in its greehn building services department, headed by Diane Vrkiv in San Francisco. On July 10, JLL gobbled up Toronto-based EDC developer of technology that underlies the environmentap rating systemsfor buildings, includint Green Globes for the Green Building Initiativew and Go Green for BOMA Canada.
The groulp was recently tapped by a majorf beverage manufacturer to do a green building assessment of 900 properties aroundthe "We have seen tremendous growth around our greem building services," said "We have products and servicea that access buildings, provide our clients with very quick and easy ways to benchmark their buildings and entire portfolios." The JLL green building team createas a easy-to-understand profile of buildings and identifying quick, low-cost measures that can decrease energy usage and increase sustainability.
"Our institutionap clients are absolutely eatingthis up," said "They didn't have any place to go to get that Their tenants want it, so it'w the right thing to do from a social responsibility but also the marketing value you get for tenantsw has been very positive. We think that is going to be a big growty driverfor us." Meanwhile JLL's projec t management group has grown 20 percent a year and now has 135 peopled in Northern California, according to Brucse Kimbell who heads up the division. The growth has been focusedc on managinghotel ground-up development, and landlord/tenant work, which rangese from elevator remodels to new roofs.
As fee the project management group takes projectx from entitlementthrough construction. The JLL capitaol markets group has alsobeen exploding. who heads up the group, said it has grown from just two peopler in 1999 to about35 today, despite the credir crunch and the fact that very few buildingsx are changing hands. "We see our competitiob going through the process ofdownsizing -- we see this as a greayt opportunity to expand," said Seifer. "It's a tough but as a company we have a longetrterm outlook." The capital markets group is involve d in advising South Korea-based in its pending acquisitiojn of One Sansome St., the 652,000-square-foot tower.
Mirea doesn't have an officwe in this country, but approached JLL's office in Seoul, Korea, and said it was lookinb for Class A office towers in New York and San Francisco for a newglobao fund. "That does play into our growth strategy," said "The world has gone and our clients' demandsz are global." Real estate consultant Lynn whose consulting firm was acquired byin said, "big corporations find safety in hiring large real estat e services firms." Sedway pointes to a request that had made for consulting services beforse her boutique firm had been bough t by CBRE. They didn't get the job.
Months later, afteer the merger, GM asked for another "The proposal was exactly the same and the second time we gotthe job," said Sedway. Like law real estate services mergerw and acquisitions have accelerated inrecenr years. In 2003, CBRE bought the for about $256 million in cash. In December 2006, CBRE acquired for $2.2 billion. In September 2006, Pacific Northwest brokerage powerhouse GVA Kidder Mathewse merged with GVAWhitney Cressman. took over in a reverses merger.
With the exception of boutique firmsw likethe , which is one of the strongest landlor d rep firms in San Francisco, and which with the Staubach merger consolidates its positio as the dominant tenant-only broker in Northern smaller real estate services firms that don'tg get larger are "at risk of going under," Sedwayt said. "It's analogous to what has been goingf on with the lawfirms -- good luck to those who don'tg (merge)," said Sedway. In the days befor e the merger, Fogg said Staubach had an increasingl y tough time winningglobal business.
"One of the thingsd we were struggling with at Staubach was the abilitt to win largeinternational business," said "We didn't have the abilith to sit down with a Fortune 500 companyh and say, 'Look, this is what we can do for you all over the