GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Elliott Associates To Manage Naito Portfolio

PORTLAND, OR-Locally based Elliott Associates Inc. will be the asset manager for the Naito family real estate portfolio, which is owned by the newly formed Bill Naito Company. The 1.2-million-sf, 17-building portfolio includes Montgomery Park (701,000 sf) in Northwest Portland, the Galleria (140,000 sf) and 921 SW Morrison St. (162,500 sf) Downtown, and the Albers Mill Building (120,800 sf) on Northwest Naito Parkway. A.E. Berri, a CPM and vice president with Elliott Associates, will serve as operations director working in partnership with a staff of 50 Bill Naito Co. employees and reporting to the board. Elliott Associates president Lou Elliott will assist Berri in day-to-day decisions as well as assist the Bill Naito Co.’s board of directors in developing a long-term plan for the portfolio. Elliott Associates manages about 5 million sf in 80 properties in Oregon, Washington and Nevada. “The board is deeply interested in professional, third-party counsel to help us craft a new approach to manage our properties and re-establish relationships with the real estate community,” says Larry Naito, chairman of the Bill Naito Co. board of directors. “We are pleased to have Lou and his team on board.” The portfolio was previously held by H. Naito Corp., which included various members of the Naito family, but a falling out prompted litigation that resulted in January settlement agreement that divided H. Naito Corp. assets between two shareholder groups. Sam Naito and his son Verne got the H. Naito Corp. name and the family’s Made in Oregon chain of retail stores while all but two of the real estate assets went to the children of the late Bill Naito (Sam’s brother) and Sam Naito’s two oldest sons (Ron and Larry) who sided with the Bill Naito children in the dispute. Elliott Associates was selected to manage the assets after Bill Naito Co.’s board of directors–all family at this point but soon to include non-family members–inked a shareholder agreement that calls for an independent third party provider to manage the assets and oversee day-to-day property management. “We will be working with local and national brokerage firms to negotiate transactions and to list various properties in the portfolio,” Elliott says. “Bill Naito Co. is anxious to let the real estate community know we have new ownership, new management, and are ready to do deals.”Elliott Associates and the Bill Naito Co. board are interviewing five brokerage firms for the office leasing work and expect to make a decision in the next week or two. HSM Pacific already has been retained to lease the retail portion of the Galleria, which also has third-floor office space available for lease.The two real estate assets that H. Naito Corp. (Sam and Verne Naito) received in the split are the Dekum Building at Third Avenue and Washington Street Downtown and a waterfront parcel that sits between the Albers Mill Building and the Portland Police horse paddock. On that parcel, H. Naito Corp. has proposed a $200-million, 400-unit for-sale residential development.