SKB Adds Staff to Support New Products

PORTLAND, OR-ScanlanKemperBard Companies has added a chief compliance officer and two new vice presidents in support of its new and existing products. The locally based real estate merchant banking and development advisory firm is in the process of adding two new products, a public, non-traded REIT and a tenant-in-common (TIC) investment vehicle for 1031 exchange investors.Thomas Biesiadecki is SKB’s chief compliance officer. Biesiadecki’s recent employment includes Deputy Director of Compliance at Columbia Management Group’s Midwest and Western regional offices and Chief Compliance Officer at Columbia Management Company and the Crabbe Huson Group in Portland. Biesiadecki also did a stint as Director of Internal Audit at Rodman and Renshaw Capital Group Inc. a full service broker-dealer in Chicago. At SKB, Biesiadecki has direct responsibility for compliance oversight for SKB’s companies to ensure that firm-wide policies and procedures comply with all federal and state laws. SKB also hired David Hull as vice president of special projects, and promoted Margaret Hill to vice president of investor relations and securities compliance administrator. Hill, who joined SKB in 2000 following eight years with mortgage banker Trowbridge, Kieselhorst & Co., is now responsible for coordinating with investors, the NASD and the SEC to ensure that all company and regulatory agency policies and procedures are followed, including for SKB Securities. Hull, who has 17 years experience in real estate and construction, has been director of financial planning and general manager at Wireless Matrix Corp. and chief financial officer of Cycomm Solutions. He has also been controller of Morganti Inc., a real estate construction firm, and LaSala Management, a New York area real estate developer. In his new position with SKB, he will focus on project management, budgeting and fiscal management, processes, compliance and regulatory issues. SKB is in the midst of its best year ever in terms of acquisitions, having acquired more than $250 million in real estate, including a 1.3 million-sf Utah industrial portfolio acquired from GGP earlier this month for about $67 million. Given the two new products, 2005 stands to be substantially better than that. SKB REIT I plans to offer 30 million shares at $10 each, raising $300 million that will be used to acquire and operate income-generating retail, office and industrial properties located in major and secondary U.S. cities in the western U.S. As well, the REIT may invest in other real estate related investments, including mortgage loans and ground leases.