The leasing assignment is for three shopping centers in Long Beach and one in Cerritos that are owned by Bixby, a private REIT and real estate investment and development firm. The Grubb & Ellis team that will manage leasing for the four centers includes associate Terrison Quinn, senior vice president Mark Baziak and associate Peter Spragg, all with the Newport Beach office of Grubb & Ellis. The three Long Beach centers are located in the densely populated area near the Traffic Circle, a roundabout at the intersection of Lakewood Boulevard, Pacific Coast Highway and Los Coyotes Diagonal.

Vons Circle Center is a 150,000-square-foot center bounded by Ximeno Avenue, Atherton Street and Los Coyotes Diagonal. Anchors include Vons, Rite Aid and Ross Dress for Less. Located across the street from Vons Circle Center is Circle Center West. The 65,000-square-foot center is also bounded by Ximeno Avenue, Atherton Street and Los Coyotes Diagonal. Anchors include Marshalls and In-N-Out Burger.

The third is Circle Center, which totals 80,000 square feet at the intersection of Lakewood Boulevard and Los Coyotes Diagonal. Anchors include Ralphs and CVS. The fourth center is Lincoln Station, a 92,000-square-foot property at 11900 South St. in Cerritos. Anchors include Sports Authority, Leslies Pools and Washington Mutual.

In establishing the Petroleum Services Group, Grubb & Ellis is continuing with a strategy that is designed to provide deeper specialization and collaboration across service lines and geography, according to Greg Coxon, president of brokerage services. "The petroleum industry has very specialized real estate needs," Coxon points out. He notes that Haves, who formerly was with the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis for 11 years, is an expert on the petroleum industry.

In addition to providing brokerage, appraisal and project management services to petroleum companies seeking to acquire or downsize assets such as gas stations, plants, terminals and blending facilities, Haves will be responsible for building a national practice designed to address the specialized real estate needs of petroleum and other energy companies.

Haves brings with him Steve Sabahai, who will be an associate in the Grubb & Ellis Redwood Shores office in the San Francisco Bay Area, following four years as an associate at CB Richard Ellis.

Before his brokerage career, Sabahai spent 20 years in the petroleum industry in senior management positions in marketing, wholesale distribution, logistics and corporate real estate. The new practice group is working on an assignment for Circle K, one of North America's leading operators of convenience store/gas stations, which is seeking to expand its operations throughout California.