SANTA ANA, CA-Grubb & Ellis Co. has established a strategic alliance with Kettler Inc. that will enable the Santa Ana-based real estate services firm to offer Kettler's residential property management services to Grubb & Ellis clients nationwide. The alliance, which will operate as Grubb & Ellis|Kettler Residential Management.

According to Jack Van Berkel, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Grubb & Ellis, the new arrangement comes in place after, “Many of our clients have told us that they are looking for a service provider that can provide solutions across all asset types and throughout the life cycle of their ownership."

Van Berkel, who is also president of real estate services for Grubb & Ellis, says that Kettler’s residential property management capabilities,

combined with Grubb & Ellis’ real estate services platform, "will enable us to lease, manage and dispose of all asset classes on behalf of our clients.”

Van Berkel adds that the alliance "will play a significant role" in the company’s growing financial services asset management practice, which provides services including leasing, receivership, management and disposition to financial institutions and special servicers with

distressed assets. From the perspective of Washington, DC-based Kettler, which is one of the Mid-Atlantic’s largest real estate and property management firms, the relationship will allow Kettler to enter new markets and to provide residential management services on a national level, according to Cindy Clare, president of Kettler Management Inc.

Via Grubb & Ellis|Kettler Residential Management, the two firms will work together when a property owner requires both residential and commercial property management services. In these situations, Grubb & Ellis will

coordinate marketing efforts, streamline suppliers and interconnect technology systems, and in markets where Kettler currently does not have a presence, the alliance will provide Kettler an opportunity to expand its residential management portfolio.

At June 30, 2010, Grubb & Ellis and its affiliates managed approximately 300 million square feet of commercial property. Kettler manages more than 16,000 apartments in 70 communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.