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

Ward tells GlobeSt.com that he just relocated to the DC regionfrom Vancouver, "where we were quite active in development. We wantto replicate that here in DC." Typical projects in Vancouver, hesays, are between $25 million to $200 million and can range frommixed-use to pure retail. The last time Grosvenor was involved in amajor development project in the DC area was in 2005 when itstarted development on a 44,000 sf restaurant-retail center inSilver 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 torebrand and renovate an existing 220-room Holiday Inn hotel inChevy Chase, MD."