NAI NBS an Oregon Most Admired Company for Sixth Consecutive Year

For the sixth consecutive year, NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson was recognized as one of Oregon's Most Admired Companies, based on a survey of Oregon CEOs conducted by the Portland Business Journal. NAI NBS ranked third out of the top ten Most Admired Commercial Real Estate Companies. President J. Clayton Hering accepted the award at a luncheon held at the downtown Hilton yesterday. About 1,800 CEOs and top-level managers in Oregon and Southwest Washington were surveyed to determine the Most Admired Companies.

Hering Featured in Oregon Business

Norris, Beggs & Simpson Companies President J. Clayton Hering was profiled in the December issue of Oregon Business magazine. Click here to read the article. Clayton has been with NBS since 1972, and became president of the company in 1993. He is very active in civic organizations and the arts, serving on the board of the Oregon Symphony and on the Young Audiences Advisory Board, among others.

NAI NBS Property Managers Win Big at Oregon Chapter IREM Awards

NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson had a great showing at the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) Oregon-Columbia River Chapter Annual Awards Ceremony last week. NAI NBS was named the Accredited Management Organization (AMO) Firm of the Year. Kimberly Fuhrer, who works out of our Vancouver office and is IREM's Vice President, Member Services for 2011, was named Certified Property Manager (CPM) of the Year. Traci McCauley, IREM's Vice President of Education for 2011, was honored for Outstanding Member Participation of the Year. Debra McCracken, another Vancouver property manager and IREM's 2011 President, was recognized with the President’s Award.

A number of other NAI NBS property managers will also hold leadership roles in IREM in 2011:

Nutan Engels - Community Service Committee Chair
Monique Clouser - Income/Expense Committee Chair
Christina DuCoté - Legislative Committee Chair
Stephanie MacPherson - Newsletter Committee Chair

Congratulations to all! NAI NBS has a strong asset/property management division. Our current portfolio is about 7 million square feet, 345 residential units and 117 acres of land, around the Portland metropolitan area and Vancouver, Wash. NBS Multifamily Management, a division of Norris, Beggs & Simpson Cos., manages the residential portion.

Gresham's Burnside Commons Lands First New Tenant Since Change in Ownership

Gresham’s Burnside Commons has secured its first new tenant since FMK Properties – Burnside, LLC purchased the property in July.

Gresham Therapeutic Massage Center leased 3,899 sf, and the lease began Oct. 15. NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson Senior Vice President Jack McConnell represented the landlord, and Bill Butler of Web Properties, Inc. served as a consultant on the lease.

Gresham Therapeutic Massage Center, a locally-owned business, found precisely what it was seeking in Burnside Commons: a larger space with good street exposure that had an improved interior and was ready to occupy. The business was previously located in a space on Burnside about half a mile from Burnside Commons.

Since health care is one area of the economy that is growing, brokers are seeing increased activity from health care tenants, McConnell said.

Burnside Commons is a 38,053 square foot, three-building retail property built in 2001 and 2006 at the intersection of Burnside and Eastman Parkway. Burnside Commons’ owners are still working on lease-up of the property, which has considerable vacancies.

Third Quarter Market Reports for PDX CRE: Signs of Improvement in Multifamily, Central City Office Markets

This week we released our Third Quarter 2010 quarterly reports for the Portland metro area. There's no doubt that we're still seeing the impact of the recession, but there was certainly some good news, too.

Office vacancy in Central City decreased to 12.13% with 282,442 sf absorbed, thanks to large leases at First & Main and the Meier & Frank Depot Building. Suburban vacancy remained stable at 24.06% with about 4,000 sf absorbed, the first positive absorption in the suburban office market since Third Quarter 2008.

Industrial vacancy was stable at 15.22%, with about 10,000 sf absorbed. A few large transactions occurred, including PFX Pet Supply leasing 70,000 sf at Columbia Corporate Park I in North/Northeast.

Retail vacancy decreased to 6.5%, and a few projects broke ground, including the 215,000 sf Progress Ridge Town Square between Tigard and Beaverton. Retail sales were up in August and September with the help of a strong back to school shopping season.

Multifamily was a bright spot during Third Quarter. Vacancy fell to 3.65%, the lowest it has been since Second Quarter 2008. The multifamily investment market also showed increased activity, especially for properties developed as condominiums and converted to apartments.

A PDF of all the reports can be found here.

NAI NBS Welcomes Ionescu to Office Brokerage Team

Alexandra Ionescu has joined NAI Norris, Beggs & Simpson as a Real Estate Broker specializing in office properties. She will initially focus on the Sunset Corridor area, specializing in tenant and landlord advisory and working with local and regional clients.

Prior to joining NAI NBS, Ionescu was an Assistant Relationship Manager in the Commercial Real Estate Division of U.S. Bank in Portland. There, she performed financial and operational analysis of cash flow and leverage, and assessed client relationship risk.

Ionescu holds a Bachelor of Arts in business administration, with a dual specialization in commercial real estate finance and financial management, from Portland State University. She is a licensed real estate broker in Oregon.