Stream Realty Opens Retail Division

AUSTIN, TX-Stream Realty, which manages more than 75 million square feet of commercial buildings in Texas, Georgia and Florida, has added a retail investment sales division. The company has hired Stephen Maulden from Marcus & Millichap to head up the division here.

Maulden was formerly regional manager for the St. Louis office of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. Prior to moving there, however, he spent seven years with the company in Dallas as a senior associate and director of the National Retail Group.

“I’ve watched a supply-constrained market change to a demand-constrained market, but we’re starting to see a reversal again, Maulden tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re feeling cautious optimism, like we’re on the tail end of this downturn,” he says.

He says Stream added retail leasing and management as a new sector venture about 18 months ago, and that this addition will round out the new offerings. The focus of the new division is the acquisition and disposition of retail investment assets on a regional and national level, as well as extending the business line to distressed properties through receivership assignments and looking to identify acquisitions for the firm, Maulden says. “This is the right time in the market to be growing this side of the business, you don’t want to wait until everyone is going full-speed to try to jump in,” he says.

While the market is likely at its bottom, it’s going to take all the investors to join in, he says. “Many people talk about the institutional investors, we feel it’s going to take the private capital market to pull us out of the slump. But there’s movement, there’s been four shopping center transactions in the past month in Austin. Everyone is talking that this year is feeling better, we think transaction velocity will increase to drive demand and overall values,” Maulden says.

A spokeswoman for Marcus & Millichap tells GlobeSt.com that the company does not comment on employees that have left the firm.