Osbrink To Run Sperry Van Ness for Guardian

IRVINE, CA-Guardian Management, the Portland, OR-based company that just closed on the franchise rights for Sperry Van Ness in Southern California, Arizona and Oregon says it has lured Robert Osbrink, the former EVP and chairman of transaction services for Grubb & Ellis to lead and expand the eight-office brokerage operation as its president and also a principal in the franchise. Osbrink also will sit on SVN’s national board of advisers and be a member of Guardian’s executive management team, according to Guardian president Tom Brenneke, who will serve as CEO of the franchise and fellow member of the SVN board of advisers.

As is, Guardian Management’s SVN franchise includes seven offices in SoCal and one in Phoenix that are operating with approximately 200 brokers. Brenneke says Osbrink will play a key role in the company’s effort “to build on the existing Sperry Van Ness market share in Southern California and Arizona while expanding [its] presence in Oregon and other key US markets.”

“It’s different [from what I was doing at G&E] from the standpoint that I’m a principal here; the fact that I could get involved in a number of different ways was intriguing,” Osbrink tells GlobeSt.com. “My primary focus will be to look internally at what we have right now, stabilize the core business and then look at growth opportunities.”In July, when GlobeSt.com first reported on the acquisition, Guardian Management was exclusively an owner and manager of 130 apartment properties in seven states that heretofore only provided brokerage services to its apartment clients, and only on a limited basis. The acquisition was about diversification, Brenneke told GlobeSt.com.