JLL has hired a San Francisco Bay Area real estate veteran to help oversee office leasing in the East Bay as the region recovers from a post-pandemic real estate reset.
The real estate services giant tapped broker Scott Greenwood to serve as managing director focusing on agency leasing across the Bay Area’s second city of Oakland and beyond.
Greenwood has some 20 years of commercial real estate experience in the region, most recently serving as a senior vice president at CBRE, where he spent close to a decade amassing a “substantial portfolio” of Oakland deals advising both landlords and tenants “across a broad range of institutional and private ownership groups,” JLL said. He is based at the firm's office in the upscale East Bay suburb of Walnut Creek.
At CBRE, he handled the leasing for 1440 Broadway, a 10-story office building in downtown Oakland, and represented landlord Swift Real Estate Partners in Delta Dental’s lease expansion at nearby 1333 Broadway.
“The East Bay office market is at an inflection point with compelling long-term opportunity,” Greenwood said in a statement. “I’m excited to join JLL’s global platform and collaborate with a team that is deeply committed to helping owners and occupiers position their assets strategically in a shifting environment.”
Booming again?
A decade ago, Oakland was enjoying a boom of its own as tenants seeking relief from San Francisco’s rising rents spilled across the bay. Today a handful of investors are convinced that the city will soon boom again — much as its sister city is enjoying rising leasing demand thanks to the artificial intelligence boom — even as the Bay Area’s second city continues to recover from problems ranging from rising crime to a cash-strapped city government.
Vacancy rates across the East Bay market remain historically high at 16% as of the first quarter of 2026, marking one of the steepest climbs in recent decades, driven by persistent negative absorption and subdued leasing momentum.
Despite these headwinds, asking rents have shown modest resilience, as landlords have held firm on pricing in Class A buildings, according to CoStar. Premium properties are maintaining occupancy and pricing power, while legacy buildings face mounting vacancy and downward pressure on rents.
Greenwood, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, also worked at Colliers International earlier in his career. JLL said he has represented approximately 4.5 million square feet of Class A office listings and completed more than 4 million square feet worth of leases and over $800 million in sales transactions. He specializes in office, flex and specialty properties throughout Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley and Alameda.
“Scott’s arrival is a transformational moment for our East Bay business,” said JLL Senior Managing Director Trent Barmby in a statement. “His market leadership and track record of performance immediately strengthen our Oakland agency presence and positions JLL as the clear market leader in the region.”