Grubb & Ellis Releases Lampley

ATLANTA-Two years after being hired by Grubb & Ellis Co. as president of transaction services for the eastern region, William Lampley has been released from the company’s local office. Lampley, who was also in charge of the firm’s nationwide strategic accounts group, is the only one of its 95 local employees affected by the move.

Lampley could not be reached for comment Friday, though a Grubb & Ellis spokeswoman confirms with GlobeSt.com that his layoff, which occurred over the past week, resulted from corporate downsizing. The move is part of an ongoing integration of services and departments resulting from last year’s reverse merger between Chicago-based Grubb & Ellis and Santa Ana, CA-based NNN Realty Advisors.

Lampley joined Grubb & Ellis in November 2006 from Kellogg Partners, a locally based real estate consulting firm he formed in April 2005. He previously spent 11 years with Jones Lang LaSalle, where he managed a national alliance team and handled transactions involving large office and industrial portfolios.

The hiring of Lampley was part of a five-year strategic plan initiated at Grubb & Ellis by then-CEO Mark Rose to grow the company prior to its NNN merger. He initially reported to Bob Osbrink, president of transaction services, but most recently reported to Jack Van Berkel, who now has that title in addition to being chief operating officer and executive vice president of the combined Grubb & Ellis organization.

Van Berkel told GlobeSt.com in early November that Grubb & Ellis cut its brokerage staff by 10%, or 100 positions, as part of a strategy designed to replace lower-producing brokers with higher producers. He said the company is actively recruiting brokers who can succeed through the current downturn and anticipated recovery.

Lampley is a graduate of the US Military Academy and a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He is one of Atlanta’s best-known minority executives in commercial real estate, and served as a panelist for this year’s Global Diversity Summit, held in late July at the Georgia World Congress Center.