In the San Francisco office, Janine Watson, SVP, will focus on the office market with both tenant and landlord representation, while Ken Brownell, SVP, specializes in retail brokerage services for property owners and tenants. Watson joined G&E during the late-1980s in the East Bay and then moved to San Francisco, where she predominantly worked for Pacific Union Commercial before returning to G&E about three years ago. Prior to G&E, Brownell was president and owner of Blatteis Realty and has been a retail real estate specialist and involved with retail developments in San Francisco and the San Francisco Peninsula for more than 25 years.

“For now, we have four agents in our Sacramento office and a true market leader in Steve Griffin,” Benoit tells GlobeSt.com. “We are talking with other outside agents that have expressed interest in joining us in a new location, and we also have existing agents that may prefer to work in a Pointe West location rather than Roseville or Rocklin. All this, plus the timing of getting a new office completed with enough room to right-size for what we have or expect to have, makes it hard to say what our exact size will be in Sacramento other than to say we intend to have a strong local presence.”

In the wake of G&E’s acquisition and reformation into Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, many former G&E executives have been making their way to other firms’ West Coast offices. As GlobeSt.com previously reported, earlier this month Christenson Advisors hired industry veteran Jack Van Berkel, former G&E EVP, COO and president of real estate services, as a partner and managing principal based in the firm’s Newport Beach office. And in April, Voit Real Estate Services hired former G&E executives Brandon Keith, Robert Vallera, Jeffery Chasan, Stephen Dok and Mathew Kennedy for its San Diego office. Just prior to that spate of hires, as GlobeSt.com exclusively reported, Voit brought on three SVPs and a marketing assistant to its Inland Empire retail team with the addition of Tom Swieca, Tony Archer and Sandie Smith (all formerly with Grubb & Ellis) and Dianna Bernard.

TRI has also had a recent executive move. As GlobeSt.com previously reported, in March UGL Services appointed Bob Kuhl, formerly a principal at TRI, to the Sacramento office of UGL Services to serve as SVP in brokerage operations.