Opus West's Wattson

The Opus Group division Opus West Corp. recently created the new position, VP of retail development, and hired Greg Wattson to fill the slot. A 20-year industry veteran, Wattson was last at Trammell Crow, where he was SVP of retail and oversaw western states. For Opus West he is managing the company’s retail developments in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah out of the Irvine, CA office. Among the firm’s projects under way are two developments in Chino Hills, CA: the 400,000-sf Shoppes at Chino Hills lifestyle center and the 500,000-sf Commons at Chino Hills. Wattson recently spoke with GlobeSt.com about Opus’ strategy and trends in the industry.

GlobeSt.com: Is working for Opus different from other firms because it has construction and design capabilities?

Wattson: Opus provides the resources upfront to get the questions answered, so as an end result it is a successful project. You can go down the hall, lay out a site plan and have immediate input from a construction and design-build point of view and solve a lot of issues up front. Whereas you typically bring in a contractor, which can work very, very well, but sometimes it can take a little bit longer. Here we just have it in house. It’s very effective, and it solves a lot of issues that may come up later in the process.