Stott Buys Stake in ScanlanKemperBard Cos.

PORTLAND, OR-The locally headquartered real estate merchant banking firm ScanlanKemperBard Cos. has a new principal and vice-chairman. Peter Stott, a successful local businessman who ran Crown Pacific Partners from 1988 to 2004, has acquired a minority stake in the company, which invests in real estate on behalf of high-net-worth individuals, families and trusts. SKB acquired about $260 million of West Coast real estate last year and is on pace to add another $350 million in assets in 2005.Crown Pacific was liquidated in 2004 after low timber prices forced it into bankruptcy. Stott currently serves as the president of Columbia Investments Ltd., a real estate holding company, and is the chairman emeritus of Market Transport Ltd., an Oregon-based national trucking company he founded in 1969. He also sits on the boards of both Liberty Northwest Insurance Co. and CNF Inc., as well as numerous local nonprofits including SOLV and the Portland Art Museum. Stott’s involvement in real estate began in 1974 and includes serving as the principal investor in Gerding/Edlen Development Co.’s five-block Brewery Blocks redevelopment in Portland’s Pearl District.”He has been a key contributor to our company from its earliest days, was one of our original financial backers and has consistently been one of SKB’s largest single investors in our 12 years,” says SKB’s founding principal Bob Scanlan. He describes Stott’s stake in the company as a material but minority interest. Moreover, Scanlan tells GlobeSt.com that he and partners Todd Gooding and N. Thomson Bard were not entertaining selling a stake in the company to anyone but Stott, whom they believe will help speed the company’s already rapid growth. “We expect Peter Stott will have a dramatic impact on growing our US investor base…through his extensive contacts,” Scanlan says. “We also expect the experience Peter brings in corporate governance, business in general and his drive will be a great benefit… .”SKB, founded in 1993, specializes in opportunistic real estate investments in West Coast development having total capitalization in the $10-million to $75-million range. To date, SKB’s portfolio activity is in excess of $1.45 billion. Its Portland real estate portfolio includes Uptown Shopping Center, Jackson Tower and the American Bank Building, among others. On the development side, SKB is investing in high-rise condominium developments in Portland (John Ross) and Downtown Los Angeles (Elleven) that are under construction and another in Downtown Bellevue, WA that is still in the planning phase.