Grubb & Ellis Names Management Services Exec

Mumper tells GlobeSt.com that his appointment is part of a company-wide commitment by Grubb & Ellis to integrating all of its service lines to be able to provide clients with a full spectrum of transaction services, corporate services, investment services, facilities and property management in all of the markets the company serves. He says that as part of the integration of services, he is working with the company's brokers and transaction professionals, who represent a great resource for the management division, which in turn can provide services that help the transaction professionals do a better job for their clients. Mumper notes that the company is also planning to name a director of management services who will be his counterpart in Northern California.

In his new post Mumper will oversee all aspects of the company's facilities and property management operations throughout the region, which ranges from Santa Barbara to San Diego, including the Inland Empire. The new assignment includes about four million square feet of office, industrial, medical office and retail space throughout the region.

Mumper tells GlobeSt.com that Grubb & Ellis is targeting institutions, high-net-worth individuals and other property owners in a concerted effort to increase its market share of the property and facilities management. In addition, he says, the company expects to see other opportunities in the REO sector, both in working for lenders and in working with the ultimate buyers of REO properties.

The four million square feet in the Grubb & Elllis Southern California management portfolio includes about 1.5 million square feet owned by Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors. Mumper says that his division does not automatically get the management assignments for the Realty Investors properties, however. "We get a good look at the properties, but it's not a foregone conclusion that we will get them. We get them if we can service them appropriately," he says.

The new Grubb & Ellis director of management services points out that in light of the economic downturn and changing market conditions, property owners are focusing their attention more on improving building management. "Property management becomes a very important component of building ownership in times when the other fundamentals aren't going in the right direction," he says.

Mumper notes that facilities management also represents a large component of the Grubb & Ellis management services platform. He cites the contracts that the company has won recently with Kraft Foods and Ingersoll-Rand for facilities management for those firms.

Before he was with BentleyForbes, Mumper was director of real estate services and acquisitions for USAA Real Estate in the Western Region. Before that he was a senior director with R&B Commercial Real Estate. He began his commercial real estate career with Grubb & Ellis in 1986 as an office broker with the company's downtown Los Angeles office.