WOODLAND HILLS, CA-Graham Allchorn, has joined NewMark Merrill Cos. as managing director and principal of NewMark Merrill Development Partners as the Woodland Hills-based company launches a program to expand its development activities. The addition of Allchorn, who most recently was president and co-founder of GRAE Ventures, will enable NewMark to expand its activities in pursuing ground-up development deals, according to Sandy Sigal, CEO and founder of NewMark Merrill Cos. Sigal says that NMC development partners will be looking for opportunities for such development from small single tenants to large anchored centers of 500,000 square feet or more.

Sigal says that NMC Development partners will focus on repairing failing development deals for lenders or investors, opportunities in cities needing an experienced developer with access to capital, tenant-generated opportunities for tenants looking to expand their store base, underutilized shopping centers with redevelopment opportunities, advisory work for institutions, tenants, and cities looking for strategic vision, liquidity, and/or development experience.

“Graham has been involved with over 50 deals in a 10-year span, in good markets and bad, and will benefit from the NewMark Merrill Cos. platform of 10 million square feet of retail space in California, Colorado and Illinois,” Sigal said in an announcement regarding Allchorn’s appointment. Both Sigal and Jim Patton, director of leasing and acquisitions for NewMark Merrill, previously worked with Allchorn at West Venture while Sigal was CEO of that company.

Allchorn co-founded GRAE Ventures in 1996, where he pursued real estate acquisition and development. While at GRAE, he was responsible for over $400 million in primarily retail developments. Before 1996, for nearly 10 years, he headed the leasing and acquisition activities of West Venture Development’s commercial division with Sigal. In his tenure there, he was responsible for the development and/or rehabilitation of more than 2.5 million square feet of shopping centers. In 1986, he joined Amsted Associates as vice president of leasing, where he was responsible for maintaining all existing shopping center lease activity and over two million square feet of retail space throughout California.