He will be responsible for the acquisition of development sites, concept development, construction procurement, project execution, and final leasing or selling of developed property. Grosvenor currently holds a portfolio of approximately 1.6 million sf of office, retail, and hotel space in the metro area.

Ward tells GlobeSt.com that he just relocated to the DC region from Vancouver, "where we were quite active in development. We want to replicate that here in DC." Typical projects in Vancouver, he says, are between $25 million to $200 million and can range from mixed-use to pure retail. The last time Grosvenor was involved in a major development project in the DC area was in 2005 when it started development on a 44,000 sf restaurant-retail center in Silver Spring, MD, according to the company's website.

Now activity is ramping up again. Besides Ward's appointment, Grosvenor is about to launch a redevelopment of one of its hotels. According to the company's 2007 annual report issued April 14, "we [have] advanced negotiations and design work with Marriott to rebrand and renovate an existing 220-room Holiday Inn hotel in Chevy Chase, MD."

"Michael Ward will strengthen Grosvenor's capability to pursue development opportunities in the Washington metropolitan area, which is one of just four geographical markets in which Grosvenor Americas is focused, the others being San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago," Mark Darley, SV and general manager, Grosvenor USA Ltd. says in a prepared statement.