Alamo Group chairman Don Gaube tells GlobeSt.com that the various entities that own the properties will pay the new JV a management fee (such a fee typically ranges between 3% and 5% of gross rental revenue) and the JV partners (Gaube, Dudum and RiverRock) will split the profits. The partners' individual percentage interests in the JV were not disclosed.

In Northern California, some of the properties Diablo RiverRock will be managing include Bing Crosby's Restaurant and Piano Lounge and McCovey's Restaurant, both located in Walnut Creek. Both are new brands of Dudum Sports & Entertainment, with Alamo as its investment partner.

The assignment takes RiverRock's management portfolio to approximately 8 million sf, a significant number but nonetheless behind the lofty goals Combs set for the company when he launched it four years ago. In interviews at that time, Combs said he wanted to have 15 million sf under management by 2006 and 65 million sf under management by the end of 2008.

Combs describes his operation as a "breakthrough property management model based on innovative, client-focused standards for operational efficiency, customer service, fee structure, outsourcing, personnel and training that increases the ability of building managers to positively impact the value of a real estate asset." He declined to go into detail about his program or his fee structure, saying it is proprietary information that, if revealed publicly, would likely be copied and thereby put him at a competitive disadvantage. In interviews from 2003, Combs said that efficiencies in his model allow him to undercut the big-name competitors on cost by at least 10%.