HOUSTON – Ed Page, founder and CEO of locally based Page Partners LLC has consolidated his five-person team with UCR moodyrambin to create UCR moodyrambin PAGE. The consolidation occurs months after Houston-based moodyrambinretail (the retail arm of Moody Rambin Interests) and Dallas-headquartered United Commercial Realty combined forces to build a stronger full-service retail presence in the area.

Page will take on the role of managing partner with the newly branded organization. Also coming on board are senior vice president Mike Wheeler; vice presidents Chris Pitts, David Wise and Beth Palka; and associate Elliot Bridger.

Principals involved in the consolidation tell GlobeSt.com that the branding, for the time being, will represent all three names. Furthermore, the Page Partners team will operate from UCR moodyrambin’s existing offices at 3003 W. Alabama St. “It’s not unusual when viable talent comes together like this that, for a period of time, we share monikers,” adds Mickey Ashmore, UCR’s president and CEO. Ashmore says he and Page knew each other for years, and were partners in and past presidents of ChainLinks Retail Advisors.

For real estate veteran Ed Page, the partnership with UCR moodyrambin made sense from a strategic standpoint. He says that, during Page Partners LLC’s eight-year existence, he had regularly been approached by other companies and individuals to join and merge, but the timing for such activities wasn’t right. However, the current state of the economy meant “we wanted to position ourselves as best we could, to be effective, especially going forward with an improving economy,” Page comments. “We’re in a good position in Texas; our economy is ahead of a lot of the country’s.” As such, he adds, it made sense to team up with long-time friend and associate Ashmore.

Another positive from Page’s point of view was the June 2011 consolidation between moodyrambin retail and UCR.  The summer merger helped UCR expand its retail footprint in Houston and “gave us a really good opportunity to leverage ourselves in this market,” Page explains. He adds that the summer consolidation brought moodyrambin executives Ed James and Lance Gilliam into the equation, meaning “I have two other experienced, very well-connected leaders in this company to help acquire business for our team, mentor the young brokers and be my partners.”

With mergers of this type, there can sometimes be kinks to work out. Amazingly, the consolidation kinks seem to be somewhat minimal, with UCR moodyrambin PAGE managing partner Gilliam commenting on the seamlessness of the UCR moodyrambin retail merger of last summer and pointing out that the current scenario is likely to be as straightforward.

“One of the few regrets I have is that Ed Page and Ed James and I didn’t figure this out sooner,” Gilliam comments. “It gave me a great deal of confidence in what will happen to our company during the next several years.”

Ashmore says that, during the past three years, UCR has boosted its services, adding an institutional property management division and increasing its investment sales knowledge and power. Adding both moodyrambin retail and Page Partners into the mix, he says, builds a formidable platform in Houston.

 “We’re finished in terms of expansion in Texas,” Ashmore adds. “We’ve grown our footprint and we’re pleased where we are right now.”