EL SEGUNDO, CA-From ALTA Surveys to Phase 1 Environmental Assessments, the environmental engineers and consultants at Partner Engineering and Science, Inc., will blog about it in the new Science of Real Estate. The blog is part of GlobeSt.com’s new Thought Leadership program (see below for more details). Joe Derhake, the president of the El Segundo, CA-based firm recently spoke with us to discuss some of the subjects and topics he will cover on The Science of Real Estate, which will be updated a few times a week by several Partner environmental consultants and engineers.

GlobeSt.com: Is there more of a demand for Phase 1 ESA reports now that the market is heating up?

Derhake: In the first quarter, the total Phase 1 ESA volume was up 11% from the first quarter of 2010. Our volume has grown with the market and beyond. Our volume is up 110%. The reason we outgrew the market is because we had internal growth and because we focus on the CBMS marketplace. The phase one market as a whole will probably grow in line with the commercial real estate market, with one caveat. A Phase 1 is often done in both a purchase or financing transaction, but they’re also done on foreclosures. So the commercial real estate deal volume has probably increased more than 11%, but deals replaced foreclosures quarter over quarter.