LOS ANGELES—The Shopping Center Group, the largest private retail real estate advisory firm on the East Coast, is opening its first West Coast office in Santa Barbara. Mike Hieshima has been tapped to lead the new California-based group, along with Philip Kyle. The move to the West Coast is part of the company's broader goals for national expansion.

With the move to Santa Barbara, the firm has 23 offices nationwide, and the company's chairman and co-CEO David Birnbrey says that this is only the beginning of the firm's West Coast expansion. “We have historically taken a very thoughtful and strategic approach to expansion,” he tells GlobeSst.com. “This was an opportunity that fell in our laps. It will be the first of many, and that just validates our commitment to being a national company.” The new office officially opened on December 1.

The company decided to set up in the Los Angeles market because of the talent base here. “Rather than choosing a market, we chose a person,” says Birnbrey about Hieshima. “We had always intended to be a national company, and you can't be a national company without a West Coast presence, but we happened to have an opportunity to get a person of similar background and similar ethics, who is great at what he does. He is the kind of person that other people will want to join.” While the company's co-CEO and president Sam Latone, adds, “Our culture is so incredibly important to us. We made the decision when created this vision several years ago that we weren't just going to open up offices in markets because we could. We were going to open up offices in markets where we could identify a person or a team that really fit well with our culture and would really represent our brand properly.”

Hieshima currently serves as the chairman of the board and president of Chainlinks Retail Advisors, of which the Shopping Center Group is a member. In 2013, the organization completed 5,000 sale and lease transactions, a total of 40 million square feet and $5 billion. He has also represented Starbucks since 1989. Kyle is also a seasoned broker. He is the top broker on the Central Coast and has been involved in more than 4 million square feet in transactions. He represents large institutional investors with a client roster that includes Kimco Realty Corp., Regency Centers, Donahue Schriber and Schottenstein. According to Latone, president and co-CEO the Shopping Center Group, the duo's experience is a perfect complement to the East Coast team.

The Shopping Center Group is known throughout the East Coast as a premier broker in retail transactions. Some of its most recent transactions to make headlines include the sale of the Countryside Center in Memphis, which traded hands at a 9% cap rate, and the Flint Crossing retail center, which traded hands for $6.5 million.