Dr. Sean Nugent (center), Pfizer Global R&D, said participating in this panel discussion at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was one way IAMC is "paying it forward." His appointment to the IAMC Board of Directors is one way Nugent himself is following suit.
Sean Nugent, executive director of Global Strategic Facilities Planning for Pfizer, was confirmed at IAMC's recent board meeting as its newest board member, replacing Ed Kelley, who stepped down after announcing his retirement from USAA Real Estate Co.

John Patelski

IAMC member John Patelski, along with colleagues Jim Jirsa and Michael Damore, has been named an executive managing director of A. Epstein and Sons International, Inc., the 85-year-old Chicago-based architecture, engineering, construction, interior design and graphic design firm. The promotions come in conjunction with a restructuring of the firm that includes the stepping down from the chairman's role by Sidney Epstein, son of firm founder Abraham Epstein, and the move to 100-percent employee ownership. Patelski, 48, president/engineering and construction, will lead these specific units and continue to head the firm's business development efforts as it is positioned for future growth in emerging areas. Patelski joined the firm in 1992 as vice president/director of electrical engineering. He was promoted to senior vice president in 1994 and executive vice president in 1996 when he moved to business development. He was promoted to president in 2002. He has been instrumental in developing new business units including EN Engineering, the firm's energy engineering joint venture with Nicor Inc.

Kevin Shannon

It's a busy time for CB Richard Ellis. Not only are its 17,000 employees celebrating the company's 100th anniversary since its founding after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, they're shaking things up with results and acquisitions too. First, according to Real Capital Analytics, CBRE was No. 1 in investment sales activity in the U.S. in 2005, with an 18-percent market share valued at $48 billion in total consideration — equivalent to the volume from Nos. 2-4 in the rankings combined. Leading the way was the industrial sector at 29.3-percent market share, as the company improved its year-on-year activity level by 70 percent. In February, CBRE announced that it had hired 24-year veteran investment sales broker Kevin Shannon Kevin A. Shannon from Grubb & Ellis as vice chairman in the greater Los Angeles area. A 24-year real estate veteran, Mr. Shannon has developed an extensive client base, totaling some 75 institutions. Since 1999, he has sold more than $6 billion of office, industrial and retail properties, including more than $1.6 billion of assets in 2005. Most recently, he orchestrated the $274 million disposition of a three-building, Class A office portfolio — believed to be the largest transaction ever in the San Diego CBD. In addition, he recently spearheaded the disposition of a 2.2 million-sq.-ft. national portfolio of industrial properties occupied by Nestlé, Inc. for $134.5 million as well as the $110 million sale of a 361,000-sq.-ft. office building at 4000 MacArthur Blvd. in Newport Beach, Calif.

On March 1, CBRE announced it had acquired facility move management services firm Project Advantage Group, Ltd., of Ann Arbor, Mich., folding it into its global corporate services business. On March 2, CBRE announced its acquisition of New York-based real estate project and construction management consultant Advocate Consulting Group, Inc. S. Bleecker Totten, senior managing director of CBRE out of Saddle Brook, N.J., and IAMC board member and CBRE senior vice president Robert F. Duncan, Jr., BCCR, SLCR, CCIM, SIOR, are both IAMC members.

Three of the eight IAMC member organizations from Nebraska were behind the publication in October 2005 of a new study of the food processing industry. Researchers with member organizations the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) and Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) worked with the University of Nebraska to compile the report, with NPPD's economist Donis Petersan, Ph.D., as lead author. The report predicts an employment increase in the sector of 5 percent between 2002 and 2012, even as overall manufacturing employment is expected to decline by 1 percent in that time frame. The study compares the geographic variability in operating costs for 16 states using a "model" manufacturing plant. Those states represent about two-thirds of all the food processing manufacturing occurring in the U.S.

Larry Rogers, vice president of Integrated Logistics, Sara Lee Food & Beverage, joined local economic development officials in Macon, Ga., in late January to announce that the company will locate a 214,000-sq.-ft. (19,881-sq.-m.) distribution center in the I-75 Business Park that will employ up to 100 initially and up to 140 in the first year. The $24-million facility will distribute both frozen and refrigerated Sara Lee meat and bakery products to the Southeast market. Patrick Topping, senior vice president of the Macon Economic Development Commission, and Kevin Dollhopf, vice president, real estate, for the Sara Lee Bakery Group, are both IAMC members.

ConAgra Foods, Inc., in the space of two weeks in late January and early February announced the sales of its refrigerated meats and smoked-meats businesses, which will result in the sale of 18 plants and the transfer of some 7,500 employees to the new owners. The company has also announced it will move its grocery food headquarters to Naperville, Ill., from Irvine, Calif., joining its dairy and meats headquarters. As a part of the moves, the company's Omaha headquarters will see an increase of 135 jobs. James G. Doyle, vice president of corporate real estate for ConAgra Foods, is an IAMC member.

Procter & Gamble in late January announced it would add approximately 80 new jobs at its manufacturing site in Brockville, Ont., in order to support the production of its new Tide to Go product as well as existing business growth. The plant already produces dryer sheets and the company's Swiffer product, and employs more than 500. "The consistent delivery of excellent results by our employees, along with aggressive cost savings and productivity improvements, has made us the competitive choice for this new business," said Jan Shroy, P&G Brockville plant manager. David Paul, director of economic development for the City of Brockville, is an IAMC member.

	CRESA Partners has expanded its San Francisco office and added Kenneth T. Sproul as senior vice president. Gary F. Gregg, president of CRESA Partners in Phoenix, is an IAMC member.
Ken Sproul

Among the 20 Georgia business people named to the state's Workforce Investment Board in early February by Gov. Sonny Perdue was Bruce C. Coles, chairman, president and CEO of MACTEC, Inc., and president of MACTEC Engineering and Consulting. April Allen, director of business development for MACTEC working out of Columbia, S.C., is an IAMC member.

IDI Services Group has named Robert M. Tardy as vice president of national leasing and marketing. Working out of IDI's corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Tardy will oversee a third-party portfolio consisting of nearly 29 million square feet of space owned by 12 institutional investors and a long-term hold portfolio totaling 19 million square feet. His recent experience includes posts as vice president of leasing at Technology Park/Atlanta Realty Services and vice president of office leasing at Duke Realty Corp.

Bob Tardy

Grubb & Ellis is doing some hiring of its own: In late February the Northbrook, Ill.-based company announced the hiring of Stephen Mallen as senior managing director, global client services, to be based in London. The 20-year veteran was with Knight Frank for 17 years and most recently was director of research and strategy for Henderson Global Investors. Steve Stoner, president of the firm's Corporate Services Group, is an IAMC member.

IAMC member firm First Industrial Realty Trust was the largest acquirer of industrial real estate in the U.S. in 2005, amounting to $2.4 billion including joint ventures with the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS). The company saw its business with U.S. corporations rise by 63 percent in 2005. Real Capital Analytics data shows that overall 2005 industrial acquisition volume increased by a similar proportion, 65 percent, to $33 billion. First Industrial recently recognized Elise A. Couston, SIOR, and Margaret Susanne Guzek of IAMC member firm Paine/Wetzel-Oncor International among their top industrial brokers nationwide. Garry Weiss, senior vice president of First Industrial, is an IAMC member, as is James H. Swartchild, Jr., executive vice president of Paine/Wetzel-Oncor International.

Located at the head of navigation for the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System in Northeast Oklahoma, the Tulsa Port of Catoosa features a 2,000-acre industrial park that is host to 50 companies.

Finally, several Oklahoma-based IAMC member organizations are gaining traction when it comes to goods movement. First, the Earth Biofuels, Inc. biodiesel project in Durant, Okla., will be up and running this month and will benefit from a $500,000 federally funded Community Development Block Grant-Economic Development Infrastructure Financing grant from the Oklahoma Dept. of Commerce to the City of Durant for construction of a rail spur and industrial road. "This is significant to the development of the plant in Durant," said Earth Biofuels' Board member and Director of Business Development Tommy Johnson. "The State of Oklahoma and the City of Durant have taken extraordinary measures to facilitate this project. The building of a rail spur and industrial road gives the Earth Biofuels complex modern access to three Class 1 rail carriers." Linda Dunn, business location manager for the Oklahoma Dept. of Commerce is an IAMC member.

Meanwhile, IAMC member organization Tulsa Port of Catoosa was the beneficiary of a clarification by FOX News in late February, when the network, in reporting the Oklahoma State legislature's disapproval of the Dubai Ports World acquisition, had mistakenly reported that it was a landlocked state. "While Oklahoma is, in fact, landlocked, it is connected to the Gulf of Mexico via the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, one of the farthest inland ports in the U.S.," read the clarification by FOX. Dick Voth of the Port is an IAMC member.