Aaron Wright Shifts Back to Studley

Wright, who has 16 years in the business, was a corporate managing director with Studley's San Francisco office from 2005 to 2007. In 2008, he left to become a partner at Base to do datacenter development work, including a project in Los Angeles that is just now being completed.

Early this year , he decided to get back into Downtown brokerage through Helmsley Spear, owned by Swig Equities, which was looking to beef up its year-old West Coast outpost in San Francisco. Wright tells GlobeSt.com it didn't take long for him to realize he preferred working at a firm that only represents one side of the table. "This is particularly critical as the fallout from the credit crisis continues and assessing the financial strength and viability of building ownership is essential to protecting tenants going forward," he says.

From there, Wright says it wasn't a big leap to select his former haunt, which is being led by Steve Barker, with whom he has a 20-year history. "I know brokerage very well, I've done it for a long time and what Studley offers is a perfect match for my services," he says. "I'm a true believer in the tenant-rep platform and the [potential] conflict of interest that it prevents."

Barker says he likes the energy, expertise and existing relationships that come with Wright. "Studley is in a growth mode in the Bay Area, and getting Aaron back on-board was a key win for us and our regional plan," Barker says. Helmsley Spear's local executive vice president Jeffrey Congdon was not immediately available Wednesday afternoon for comment.

Wright has been involved in more than four million square feet of real estate transactions and has experience with strategic planning, acquisitions, headquarters relocation analysis, global disposition programs, lease restructuring/terminations, office relocations and expansions. Some of his clients have included Sephora, Woodruff Sawyer, Jones Day, Perkins Coie, eLuxury, DFS, Pfizer and Telik. He also was instrumental in Babcock & Brown's 155,000-square-foot San Francisco headquarters transaction in 2007.