This week's People of Note includes the following markets: Cleveland/Northern Ohio, National, San Francisco, Washington, DC.

WASHINGTON, DC
Former Grubb Exec To Head New Avison Young DC Office

As part of its plan to expand into the United States, Canadian brokerage firm Avison Young opened a new office in Washington, DC, and recruited several key personnel from Grubb & Ellis to lead its effort.

Keith Lipton, the former executive vice president and managing director of Grubb in Washington, was named managing director and principal. His 20 years of experience includes positions at Jones Lang LaSalle, Insignia/ESG and CB Richard Ellis. His role at Avison includes building a full-service real estate operation in the region through acquisition and recruitment, and expanding the firm's client services platform in DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Other former Grubb staffers joining Avison include former managing director Margaret Donkerbrook who was named vice president of U.S. research, and Sarah Peyton, a former business operations manager who was appointed regional operations manager.

Led by the performance of Lipton, Donkerbrook and Peyton, Grubb’s DC branch has been the top performing office for the company since 2008. Lipton and his team were responsible for adding multiple service lines, recruiting 60 percent of the brokers and 80 percent of the total employees in the region, and the company’s expansion into Baltimore, MD.

Avison has had a busy 12 months. Last December, it completed its national merger process to create one national corporate entity, and acquired Darton Property Advisors and Managers to make Avison one of Canada’s largest property management companies. Avison opened its first U.S. branch in Chicago in January and hired Earl Webb, the former CEO of Jones Lang LaSalle's Capital Markets Group in the Americas, as president of U.S. operations.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Avison is a 31-year-old, full-service commercial real estate firm with more than 500 real estate professionals in the U.S. and Canada. It is one of Canada’s largest independently owned brokerage companies and the only national, Canadian-owned, principal-managed real estate brokerage firm in Canada.

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Editor's Note: CoStar's People of Note is published each Friday covering the latest commercial real estate executive level promotions and new hires. Please click on the headline of each article to jump to full coverage.

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NATIONAL
Grubb & Ellis Names D'Arcy New President, CEO
By Randyl Drummer

Santa Ana, CA-based Grubb & Ellis Company (NYSE: GBE) has named real estate veteran Thomas P. D'Arcy president and chief executive officer.

D'Arcy, 49, who will also take a seat on Grubb's board of directors, has led both public and private real estate companies during his 25-year career. He officially joins Grubb & Ellis on Nov. 16, coming from privately owned Bayside Realty Partners, where he served as principal.

D'Arcy is currently the non-executive chairman of Inland Real Estate Corp. (NYSE: IRC), a $1.5-billion REIT where he has served as an independent director since 2005. From 2001 to 2004, D'Arcy was president and CEO of private REIT Equity Investment Group, and he previously served as chairman/CEO of Bradley Real Estate, Inc., a NYSE-listed REIT, from 1989 to 2000.

He replaces Gary Hunt, who served as interim CEO of Grubb & Ellis after Scott Peters left the position in summer of 2008.


CLEVELAND/NORTHERN OHIO
Developers Diversified to Start New Year with Hurwitz as President, CEO
By Sasha M Pardy

Cleveland-based Developers Diversified Realty Corp. (NYSE:DDR) announced that, effective Jan. 1, 2010, Daniel B. Hurwitz will officially take over as president and chief executive officer, succeeding Scott A. Wolstein who will continue to serve as executive chairman of DDR's Board.

As president and CEO, Hurwitz will be responsible for planning, formulating and coordinating the development and execution of DDR's corporate strategy, policies, goals and objectives. As executive chairman, Wolstein will work closely with Hurwitz to develop DDR's strategic plan and will ensure the board fulfills its oversight and governance responsibilities. In addition, Wolstein, on behalf of DDR, will maintain his historic capital markets and tenant relationships and will continue to serve on the company's Investment Committee.

Hurwitz joined DDR in 1999 as executive vice president and in May 2005, was promoted to senior EVP and chief investment officer. In May 2007, he became president and COO and re-joined the board in June 2009. Prior to DDR, Hurwitz served as senior vice president and director of real estate and corporate development for Boscov's Department Store; and prior to that, he served as development director for the Shopco Group, a New York City-based developer and acquirer of regional and super regional shopping malls.


SAN FRANCISCO
Cornish & Carey Adds to Investment Team
By Ryan Munneke

Cornish & Carey Commercial/ONCOR hired Russ Sherman as senior vice president and Allison Gorelick as vice president to the investment team in the San Francisco office.

Sherman brings 35 years of commercial experience, where most recently he was a senior director of Cushman & Wakefield's Capital Markets Group. He has sold more than 20 million square feet of properties with an aggregate value of more than $3 billion.

Gorelick is LEED AP-certified and a chartered financial analyst. She has more than 15 years of development and financial experience and most recently was a vice president with Sares•Regis Group. In 2006, she was chosen to start the company's acquisition team.

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