NEWPORT BEACH, CA-RiverRock Real Estate Group is planning to open a Denver office in the fourth quarter of this year. The locally based property-management firm is expanding in order to strengthen its position as a regional provider of services in the West market.

As GlobeSt.com reported earlier today, AEW Capital Management has awarded RiverRock Real Estate Group an assignment to manage a 3.2-million-square-foot office and industrial portfolio in Southern California and Arizona. The assignment brings RiverRock's total square footage of commercial space under management to more than 25 million.

The firm has taken over the property management, leasing oversight and engineering of 28 properties for AEW. RiverRock will add approximately 30 employees who currently manage the properties. The company will be assuming regional offices in Santa Fe Springs, Rolling Hills, Upland, Riverside and the San Gabriel Valley, as well as Phoenix.

RiverRock's president Steve Core tells GlobeSt.com that the assignment also aligns with the firm's goals in that “in all the markets we in, the goal is to expand in those markets and take a greater market share. In Phoenix, we had a little over 4 million square feet, and the addition helped boost our holdings under management in Phoenix.”

When the Denver office opens, the firm will be operating throughout California, Arizona and in the greater Denver area. “We're not in Colorado at all, so this will be the first opening for us in this market,” Core says.

“Our platform is really to remain a regional provider,” he continues. “We're not on a national platform—that's not what we plan to be—but we want to continue to deliver institutional-quality services while remaining a regional company. Eventually, next year, we'll get back into the Pacific Northwest, and that would pretty much take care of our expansion plans.”