C&W Buys Southern California Firm

LOS ANGELES-Cushman & Wakefield has struck a deal to acquire small but highly successful Matlow-Kennedy Commercial Real Estate Services, a move that will strengthen the international brokerage powerhouse’s presence in the hot South Bay market.

In an exclusive interview, Matlow-Kennedy Commercial Real Estate Services principal Bob Alperin tells GlobeSt.com that the merger will give his 16 brokers access to new tools and the ability to provide mores services to their growing list of clients. “The deal gives us the opportunity to associate ourselves with a brand that’s well recognized and a company that has a full range of services–financial services, property-management services, construction-management and the like,” Alperin says.

“We were able to provide those kinds of things to our clients before, but we had to do a lot of it through third parties. More clients want a single point of contact for all their real estate needs, and this merger will let us fulfill that need,” he adds.

Though Alperin won’t disclose financial terms of the deal, he says it will become effective Jan. 1. All of Matlow-Kennedy’s brokers have been offered positions at C&W, he says.

Matlow-Kennedy Commercial Real Estate Services was formed about seven years ago, when the South Bay operations of LA-based Matlow-Kennedy Corp. became independent. Alperin was one of the original investors in the new entity and still owns part of it.

Alperin says both he and the firm’s president, Kimball Wasick, will become senior directors at C&W. New York-based C&W has about 10,000 brokers and related professionals in nearly 50 nations.

Alperin admits that his firm’s biggest strength is in Long Beach and other parts of the South Bay, as well as in north Orange County. Long Beach itself is midway between Los Angeles International Airport and OC’s John Wayne Airport.

The buyout will bolster C&W’s presence in the hot South Bay market, where office and industrial vacancies have dropped as the region’s economy booms and the twin ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles enjoy record volume. The market has also been fueled by a growing number of tenants who are moving south to escape sky-high prices in Santa Monica and West LA, a 20-minute drive up the San Diego Freeway.