CBRE adds three industrial brokers to Walnut Creek office

CBRE Group has recruited three industrial brokers from Cushman & Wakefield to beef up its sales force in Walnut Creek.

The Dallas-based commercial real estate firm has hired Brooks Pedder to serve as vice chairman, Tony Binswanger as executive vice president and Bo Harkins as first vice president, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The three agents are veterans at selling and leasing industrial properties in Contra Costa, Solano and Napa counties, having represented landlords, tenants and investors. 

Pedder, who had served as executive managing director for Cushman & Wakefield, has leased or sold more than 100 million square feet of industrial buildings and warehouses, in addition to more than 4,000 acres of industrial land or business parks across Northern California. 

Binswanger, who had served as managing director for Cushman & Wakefield, had since 2008 been involved in real estate deals of more than $1.5 billion.

At the same time, Harkins has leased more than 10 million square feet, while selling more than $500 million in industrial and office properties.

The three brokers represented developer McNeill Real Estate Services for its 250,000-square-foot warehouse in Sonoma County. Amazon.com had inked a 10-year lease at Victory Station in 2020, then backed out two years later after failing to obtain the needed permits to run it.

In October, Pedder and Binswanger helped Amazon lease a 1.2 million-square-foot industrial building in Vacaville.

A Business Times analysis ranked Cushman & Wakefield the largest commercial brokerage in the East Bay when measuring total sales and leasing transactions, with CBRE ranked second.

The CBRE hires were made during a tight industrial market in Napa and Solano counties — where vacancy fell to 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter, from 4.8 percent in the prior period, according to CBRE. 

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Warehouses in both counties at the end of last year had 1.33 million square feet of positive net absorption. 

At the same time, 467,000 square feet of industrial buildings were completed, with 80 percent pre-leased. Another 1.1 million square feet are under construction.

Figures for Contra Costa County, home to the brokers’ office in Walnut Creek, were not disclosed.

— Dana Bartholomew