Kidder Mathews Kick-Starts Sustainability Practice

SEATTLE-Bluegreen Consulting, a sustainable development advisory has merged with GVA Kidder Mathews, kick-starting a new revenue stream for the locally headquartered West Coast real estate services firm. Bluegreen’s founder Monica Smith is now senior vice president of GVA Kidder’s new sustainability practice. Financial details of the merger were not released by the parties involved and not otherwise immediately available.

Smith’s 20 years of commercial real estate experience includes overseeing the real estate, design, and construction of Microsoft Corp.’s international portfolio prior to becoming a partner with Catapult Community Developers, where she consulted private and public agencies promoting green building strategies and developed mixed-use properties. Her subsequent Bluegreen venture performed sustainable development consulting for office buildings, commercial interiors, and mixed-use developments. Some of her clients include Microsoft, the Hanover Co., Jones Lang LaSalle, and SkB Architects.

GVA Kidder’s sustainability practice will be focused on consulting for responsible development that encourages social, environmental, and economic best practices, including sustainability assessments and LEED certification management. Company chief executive Jeff Lyon said in a prepared statement that green consulting has “been on our radar screen” as an option for more fully serving existing and potential clients.

Seattle-based GVA Kidder Mathews, the largest independent real estate services firm in Washington State with five offices, entered the Northern Oregon market in 2003 and the Northern California market in 2006. It gained its third Bay Area location last fall when it acquired Santa Clara, CA-based Wayne Mascia & Assoc. and is now one of the largest independently owned firms on the West Coast.

The company’s 191 brokers provide brokerage, appraisal, property management, consulting, project and construction management, and now sustainability consulting services. They were involved in approximately $2.2 billion in transactions and 900 appraisals in 2008, and its property management portfolio totals approximately 23 million square feet.