EL SEGUNDO, CA-Urban Housing Group, a privately held real estate development company that is a subsidiary of Marcus & Millichap, has relocated its headquarters here from San Mateo as the company seeks to develop infill multifamily mixed-use projects in the Los Angeles area. Jim Brooks, president and CEO of Urban Housing, tells GlobeSt.com that the company sees opportunities throughout Southern California that fit with the same strategy it has established for developments that it has under way in Northern California.

Urban Housing's focus is on mixed-use projects that include multifamily plus one or more other components. "We are going to do mixed-use, so long as one of the mixed-use elements is a rental component," Brooks tells GlobeSt.com.

Although the term "mixed-use" in recent years has come to mean combined residential and retail components in many if not most cases, Brooks believes that future projects may include some different combinations of retail, residential and office uses.

"I think you're going to start to see a lot of creative thinking in mixed-use," Brooks says. For example, Urban Housing recently looked at a project in Southern California that is planned as office and retail, he points out. In Northern California, the company is looking at a project that would combine apartments, for-sale housing and retail space.

Los Angeles and other Southern California markets offer a host of opportunities for infill projects that could include apartments and some other element or elements of a mixed-use development, Brooks says. He points out that with the tremendous ongoing demand for housing in California, and with the condo market cooling, the always-strong rental housing market will remain a key component of mixed-use projects.

Urban Housing, which has moved into a 3,000-sf leased headquarters at 2121 Rosecrans Ave., continues to maintain its 10,000-sf San Mateo office and will likely open future offices in Orange County and San Diego as part of its plan to concentrate initially on projects throughout California. Although the company's long-range plan includes projects in other western markets, "in the current environment, there are enough opportunities both in Northern California and Southern California to keep us busy here," Brooks says.

Brooks points out that Urban Housing has in excess of 50 years of multifamily development experience through parent Marcus & Millichap. Its Northern California developments include a $90 million, 192-unit apartment and retail project in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco that was highlighted recently on GlobeSt.com.

Urban Housing is developing the project, called 555 Misson Rock, in partnership with affiliates of AIG Global Real Estate. Another of the company's projects is Edgewater at Mission Bay, a 193-unit apartment development also in the Mission Bay neighborhood.