The above-average track record increasingly has been attracting institutional investors that now often co-invest with SKB, which in turn has attracted additional individual investors, says Gooding. The additional investment dollars are what led to the company's record year. It also helps explain why the amount of equity Scanlan expects to bring in for the new fund has grown by 150% since he first spoke with GlobeSt.com about plans for the fund this time last year.

To keep up with the increased activity, SKB last week hired Kory Arntson as vice president of investor development. Arntson comes to SKB from the locally based advisory Wyse Investment Services Co., where he spent the better part of four years as director of business development and investor relations. Prior to that, Arntson spent five years with L.J. Melody as a mortgage banking officer, representing institutions in the placement of permanent debt, bridge financing and equity, and six years with U.S. Bancorp's Real Estate Department, providing credit and underwriting analysis for commercial construction loans.

"Given the increased activity at SKB and the evolution of my skill set in the real estate community from underwriting to the capital markets side of the business, the timing is perfect," Arntson tells GlobeSt.com. "There also was the desire to work alongside someone like a Bob Scanlan, who has so much experience."

In 2005, SKB purchased nine properties for $294 million during the year, up from $259 million in 2005. It also sold nine properties for $223.7 million, and provided $146 million of equity for high-rise condominium developments in Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland.

Some of the larger acquisitions included 536,500 sf within the Amberglen Business Center in Hillsboro, Ore. for $54.7 million in August; the 440,653-sf Phoenix Corporate Center in Phoenix, Ariz., for $49.3 million; the 287,004-sf Mountaingate Plaza shopping center in Simi Valley, Calif. for $39.6 million; and the 296-unit Copper Canyon Apartments in Riverside, Calif. along with excess developable land, for $36.5 million.

The largest component of SKB's disposition activity was Metrocenter, a 20-parcel multi-location retail and office portfolio that it picked up as a whole in November 2004 for $47 million and then sold off in pieces over the next nine months for gross proceeds of nearly $67 million. Other significant sales include Kearny Mesa Crossroads, a 126,732-sf, two-building office complex in San Diego that it bought for $19.7 million in 2003 and sold for $24.9 million last month; Rio Vista, a 108,477-sf office building also in San Diego that it acquired in 2003 for $17.1 million and sold last month for $22.3 million.

In the development arena, SKB provided equity for The Strand at Riverplace and John Ross condominium towers rising on the Willamette riverfront in Portland, Phase II of the 11th & Grand development in Downtown Los Angeles and The Bellevue Towers, a twin-tower project in Bellevue, Wash. The projects are being developed by the Portland based development firms /Edlen Development, Williams & Dame Development and Onder Development. In addition, SKB provided equity for two upcoming Portland-area retail developments known as the Pointe at Bridgeport and North Main Village.

In addition to Scanlan and Gooding, SKB principals include chief compliance officer Tom Bard and vice chairman Peter Stott. Stott, the former CEO of Crown Pacific, acquired a minority stake in the company in 2005. Stott also has his own firm, Columbia Investments Ltd., which shares space with SKB on the 26th floor of PacWest Tower in Downtown Portland.