Grubb & Ellis Lands Services Contracts

Under the Kraft assignment, Grubb & Ellis will serve as facilities services provider for Kraft's headquarters in Northfield and for all of the food maker's office and R&D sites across North America. Grubb & Ellis will provide a full range of facilities management services for 41 locations throughout the US and Canada totaling more than four million sf of property.

For Ingersoll-Rand, Grubb & Ellis will provide lease administration, strategic consulting and transaction management for more than 1,000 properties totaling 46 million sf of industrial, manufacturing and office sites located throughout North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The agreement extends Grubb & Ellis' relationship with Ingersoll Rand through 2013.

In the last 60 days, Grubb & Ellis' Global Client Services has won or renewed seven major corporate services accounts. Dylan Taylor, who was appointed president of Global Client Services in January calls the Kraft assignment "one of the most significant facilities management contracts awarded to a commercial real estate services provider in several years." Kraft chose Grubb & Ellis after "an extensive review process," according to Bruce Windedahl, senior director facilities & real estate for Kraft Foods. The relationship is being led by Jim Walter of Grubb & Ellis' National Accounts Team.

In the Ingersoll-Rand contract, Taylor said that an important component of the assignment will be to help the company maximize the value of the significantly larger real estate portfolio that Ingersoll-Rand now operates as a result of its $10 billion merger with Trane Inc., a provider of HVAC equipment and services. The relationship is being led a Grubb & Ellis team that includes managing directors David Susoreny and of the Strategic Consulting Group and Elizabeth Patrus, lease administrator.

In the latest Grubb & Ellis earnings conference call, interim CEO Gary Hunt pointed out that the company's management services fees increased 15% during the quarter over the previous-year period. "Despite lower transaction velocity, the current environment is prompting many companies to cut costs, which is leading to a growth in outsourcing," Hunt said in the conference call. "This trend bodes well for our global client services business, which is positioned to deliver record results in 2008." Through the first half of 2008, the global client services practice retained all of its major client relationships and in many cases expanded those relationships, Hunt said.