GLV Realty Advisors Names EVP

With the dismantling of Lester & Lester Realty Advisors Inc. of Richardson, David Lester, the president, has taken the lead role with the recently formed GLV Realty Advisors, a tenant representation firm led by industry leader James S. Vanderslice. Lester tells GlobeSt.com that he has brought a black book of contacts and his share of the business to GLV Realty, which is armed with a 2003 plan to add offices in San Francisco and Washington, DC, both of which will have corporate services' brokerage groups.

While the push begins in Dallas, doing Dallas deals, GLV Realty intends to mine Lester's level of expertise in the corporate arena. Vanderslice, GLV Realty president, considers Lester a "point person on office, office/tech and industrial transactions for corporate tenants throughout the country, particularly those that are more complex....David has a reputation in the marketplace for being a problem solver and a strategist."

In 2001, Lester was one of 36 brokers, three of whom hailed from Texas, to receive a prestigious accreditation from the Board on Certification for Corporate Real Estate. The BCCR certification is a barometer of understanding the strategic approach to corporate real estate, specifically key areas such as decision-making.

In addition to the BCCR accreditation, Lester is one of five brokers nationwide who holds the MCR Senior Leader certificate from CoreNet Global, a 7,000-member, corporate-tenant focused real estate organization evolving from last year's merger of the International Development Research Council and International Association of Corporate Real Estate Executives. He is the 2002-03 program director for the Southwest chapter.

Vanderslice says he's already talking to other recognized leaders of commercial real estate in San Francisco and Washington, DC as well as courting more Dallas-Fort Worth names for the GLV Realty team. The San Francisco office is expected to open Sept. 1 and Washington, DC's by the end of the year. The Dallas office now has five, but will go to 10, with varying levels of experience, as the expansion plays out.

Lester says the GLV Realty position allows him to focus on clients "rather than spending a significant amount of time managing my own company," a time-consuming component that was passing to his desk with the retirement of his partner and father, Charles Lester Sr.