SANTA ANA, CA-Grubb & Ellis Co., citing unsolicited inquiries, has named JMP Securities to explore 'strategic alternatives, including the potential sale or merger of the company.' The Santa Ana-based company's chairman, C. Michael Kojaian, said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon: “While the management team has made progress restructuring the business and driving top-line growth, we believe now is the time to explore opportunities on how to best leverage the broad platform and capabilities of the company into an improving market for the benefit of all stakeholders. We have received unsolicited inquiries, and decided that a formal process is in the best interest of all of our constituents.”

Thomas D’Arcy, president and CEO of Grubb & Ellis, said in the statment that, "a formal process to explore a transaction which affords the company the opportunity to drive additional scale across our platform is in the best interests of our corporate stakeholders, clients, broker-dealer partners and Grubb & Ellis professionals."

Grubb & Ellis posted a loss for the fourth quarter of 2010 and for the full year, but the losses were both narrower than those in the year before. In its report for the fourth quarter and the year, the company cited a number of signs of progress: higher overall revenue, transaction services revenue and the progress of its non-traded health care REIT, Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II, as well as reductions in corporate overhead and a strengthened balance sheet.

In that report, D'Arcy commented: "Although we are generally pleased with our revenue performance for the fourth quarter and all of 2010, we clearly have more work to do to translate this revenue growth into profitability." D'Arcy further commented: "We have expanded our platform, extended our service offerings and increased the overall productivity of our brokerage sales force. We expect this top line growth to continue, especially as our new brokerage professionals and service lines accelerate production and as the commercial real estate markets continue to strengthen. Our focus for 2011 and beyond is to improve bottom line performance and continue to raise the bar on our commitment to client service and operational excellence."

Grubb & Ellis stock closed at 98 cents Tuesday, unchanged for the day. It has traded between 91 cents and $2.35 over the past year.