The new managing director, Robert E. Williamson, has 15 years' experience in real estate asset management and finance. During his career, he has handled in excess of $250 million in asset dispositions and $350 million in commercial mortgage loans. He also has managed a 4 1/2 million-sf office, retail and industrial portfolio.

Granite Partners is a real estate investment banking firm with offices in Houston, New York City and Los Angeles. It specializes in the sale of significant assets, portfolio dispositions and financing, working with institutions, public companies and private real estate owners.

Granite Partners recently handled the sale of 204,151-sf Norfolk Tower near the Southwest Freeway in Houston. An unidentified union pension fund represented by NYC-based Clarion Partners purchased the building from Houston's McCord Development. Granite Partners touted the sale as the first multi-tenant office building purchased by an institutional investor in Houston this year.