Voit, RiverRock Deal Affirms Long Relationship

ORANGE COUNTY, CA—The recently announced alliance between Voit Real Estate Services and RiverRock Real Estate is part of the next evolution of Voit's change in structure and takes advantage of the long-standing relationship the two have enjoyed, RiverRock principal John Combs tells GlobeSt.com. As we recently reported, RiverRock has been awarded the management and accounting of a 10-property, 1.5-million-square- foot commercial real estate portfolio in Orange County, Los Angeles, Arizona and Hawaii owned by Voit Development. We sat down with Combs and Voit's recently appointed CEO Eric Hinkelman to discuss the reasons for the firms' alliance and trends they are noticing in property management.

GlobeSt.com: Why is now the right time for this alliance?

Hinkelman: There's been a big change in our firm at Voit, and with that change has been the opportunity for us to explore and do what we believe is best for the clients we serve. Focusing on our core business of brokerage, from San Diego to the Inland Empire and the greater part of Los Angeles, we wanted to align our firm with a property-management and operations firm that has a similar focus and drive for expertise. RiverRock was the perfect fit, both in the marketplaces we work in and culturally.

Combs: From our perspective, we've had a long relationship with Voit where we have been the manager and they have been the broker for years. As part of the next evolution of Voit, this presented a great opportunity for us. They have reconstituted the broker-only model, so we could not go in and bid as a full-service management company and create an alignment. We did this with Cornish & Carey in Northern California, and it worked out great: best-in-class brokerage and management firms that together can offer an integrative solution as an option. We share a lot of similar clients, and we each have different clients, so it's a unique growth opportunity for both firms.

GlobeSt.com: Do you see a trend of more strategic alliances in the industry as it becomes increasingly more competitive?

Combs: We are seeing unprecedented opportunity for growth in property management, with non-traditional owners and corporate real estate firms coming in and family offices' property managers getting older. I think you're going to see companies continue to consolidate and roll up, and those that don't will create alliances with one-stop shopping services. We're seeing more and more brokerage and management bidding, with owners saying, "We would love to see what both of your firms can do for us."

Hinkelman: Some of the really large international or global firms are getting into other aspects of real estate with which they weren't traditionally involved. These are the global superpowers for our industry, and that's not something on which we're focused. We focus on our clients and our marketplace, but some of the bigger firms are going out and about beyond the traditional limits of a commercial real estate broker/manager and getting into other aspects of the business that aren't really traditional provider services.

Combs: The firm that has the best talent at the property wins, and we each have great depth in our local marketplace.

GlobeSt.com: What other trends are you noticing in terms of property management?

Combs: We're seeing more outsourcing of accounting, both property and corporate accounting. We typically haven't seen that before. They want to have one company do all the accounting, and they pick the best companies in the different regions to do brokerage and management. We're doing property accounting in Hawaii even though we aren't located there. We're doing this in a lot of states we're not centralized in, and we're also seeing more technology coming into the management and leasing of buildings.

Hinkelman: I agree wholeheartedly. Technology is growing so rapidly. It seems weekly there's been some new resource created to benefit the people in the industry. There is constant change in technology, and we're becoming a much more efficient industry as a result.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about your new alliance?

Hinkelman: For a number of years, our two companies have worked together and have looked for opportunities and ways to potential increase that alliance, and now we're able to do that, so we're very excited about what the future has in store.

Combs: We're excited to be a part of the evolution of Voit and remain close business partners.