Carol Ambrose, formerly head of third party property management for the Portland office of Grubb & Ellis, starts a new job today as the head of Portland-area property management for the Glendale, CA-based self-managed REIT.
The company's Pacific Northwest vice president Eileen Newkirk tells GlobeSt.com Ambrose is filling a new position spawned when PS Business Parks acquired the 12-building, 685,000-sf Cornell Oaks Corporate Park here and its remaining 24 acres of developable land for $88 million--a $17.5 million discount from the original asking price of $105 million.
"I just felt it was time for a real experienced, senior operations person to look at the coordination of our vendors, develop our own facilities department and really supervise the property management operation," says Newkirk. "We're completely delighted to have her."
PS now owns more than 2 million sf in three business parks in Portland Southwest Washington, all of which are currently maintaining high occupancies despite the current environment. Newkirk says Cornell Oaks is 94% leased while the 571,000-sf Woodside Corporate Park in Beaverton is 96% leased and the 615,000-sf Creekside Corporate Park is 98% leased.
Ambrose will be based at the company's offices in the Cornell Oaks development. The one-time employee of Koll Company and former facilities manager for Washington Mutual tells GlobeSt.com she's making the change after five years in order to once again go back to work for an owner. "When doing third party management, each one of your clients could have a different view of what they are doing," she says. "Now I'm working with one person, not that I haven't enjoyed what I've done here; we've taken the property management division from five people to 50 people."
Indeed, according to David Robertson, head of property management for Grubb & Ellis' Western region, the Portland district's management portfolio has grown by 35% in the past 12 months and now totals about three million sf. Robertson says the firm's next local head of property management will be charged with continuing to grow the company's regional management portfolio.
Ambrose didn't reveal her new compensation package, but Robertson described the opportunity as "very attractive for her" and "being a third-party provider we just can't compete with the program and benefits that she has been offered."
Mark Fraser of Colliers International and former managing director of the local Grubb & Ellis office during Ambrose's tenure, says he saw her skills in the property management arena at that time and fought hard to see her promoted. "Carol is very, very good at what she does," he says. "PS is getting a real winner."
For the first quarter of 2002, the company reported net income of $13.1 million or $0.60 per diluted share on revenues of $50.9 million compared to $10.2 million or $0.44 per diluted share on revenues of $39.5 million for the same period in 2001. During the first quarter PS Business Parks' Oregon properties generated $6.1 million in net operating income, close to 17% of the company's total NOI for the quarter. Oregon is one of the few markets where the company's revenue and NOI grew compared to the same quarter one year earlier.
The company's share price has been rising steadily since it acquired Cornell Oaks last November. At that time the company's share price was in the mid $20s. On Tuesday, the company's share price closed at $35.99, up $0.09 on the day and just $1.35 off the company's 52-week-high of $37.34 achieved on April 15.
Continue Reading for Free
Register and gain access to:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
