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Retail

It’s Official: CBRE Acquires UCR

UCR’s team of more than 100 will join CBRE. Firm founder Mickey Ashmore will become vice chairman of retail services, with responsibility for directing key national retail strategies and overseeing CBRE’s retail operations throughout Texas.
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Mickey Ashmore
Mickey Ashmore

CBRE Group Inc. has acquired United Commercial Realty, a leading retail real estate firm based in Dallas. The deal has been much-discussed in the market for a number of weeks (and was a hot topic of conversation at last night’s Stemmons Service Award event, as UCR president and CEO Mickey Ashmore was one of the award’s four contenders).

UCR, founded by Ashmore in 1988, manages retail properties for institutional investors across the country and provides brokerage services for both owners and retail tenants in Texas and other markets. CBRE’s acquisition includes UCR’s Austin office.

The global commercial real estate firm has been gunning to gain market share in the retail sector for a while. Here’s what Michael Caffey, executive manager of CBRE’s Texas region, told D Real Estate Daily back in 2011: “We want to be No. 1 in each of our business enterprises in terms of local market share. That is our goal. Right now, we’re either No. 1 or No. 2, with the exception of retail. We have lagged in retail because it’s dominated here by very strong boutique players; they’re fantastic. But there hasn’t been a big presence from a national firm, so we view that as an opportunity.”

(Click here to read the full interview, which also included Blair Oden, managing director of occupier services; and Chris Hipps, managing director of institutional services.)

Michael Caffey
Michael Caffey

In a statement released late this afternoon, Caffey said the UCR team will be an asset to CBRE not just locally, but nationally. “UCR has a reputation for premier service, creative marketing concepts, innovative retail strategies and exceptional client outcomes, “ he said. “They fit perfectly into our culture and will enable us to expand the range of services we can provide to retail clients.”

UCR’s team of more than 100 will join CBRE. Ashmore will become vice chairman of retail services, with responsibility for directing key national retail strategies and overseeing CBRE’s retail operations throughout Texas. Scott Weaver, who led UCR’s property management group, will become a senior managing director in CBRE’s asset services team.

“This union will enable us to meet the needs of our clients more completely, and in more markets, than ever before,” Ashmore said. “This is the natural evolution for our company.”

UCR provides leasing, property management, asset management, and investment sales services for retail investors and tenants. The company manages about 8 million square feet of retail properties for clients such as Prudential Real Estate Investors, Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management, Invesco, Heitman and Miller Capital Advisory.

The firm, including its well-known urban retail group, oversees leasing for about 20 million square feet of retail space, including mixed-use properties and lifestyle and regional shopping centers. UCR also represents more than 200 restaurant and retail clients, including Target, Capital One, Sprouts, Victoria’s Secret, Gap, and Starbucks.

UCR is the second regional retail real estate firm CBRE has acquired in the past couple of years. In late September 2013, it acquired Philadelphia-based Fameco.

 “The UCR acquisition reflects our strategy to strengthen our position in the retail real estate sector nationally,” said Cal Frese,CEO, Americas, in a statement. “We see considerable opportunity to enhance the depth and breadth of our service offering to retail investors and occupiers across the country, and this transaction advances this strategic agenda and helps ensure we have the best retail platform in the Americas.”

Click here to read a D CEO profile of Mickey Ashmore. Click here to read a Q&A with Ashmore, Mike Hopkins, Steve Shafer, and Dan Shoevlin.

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