CLARION CONSULTING - Key Persons
Bruce G. Zimmerman became a Clarion partner in 1998. He has more than 35 years of shopping center, mixed-use, land development and financial restructuring experience. Before joining Clarion, Bruce directed the southwest regional development office for Federal Realty Investment Trust, a NYSE REIT. He served as an executive with a national drugstore chain with responsibility for all new store development in its 450-store southern California region.
Mr. Zimmerman has owned his own shopping center development company and has been a senior officer with other leading development companies with P & L responsibility for major development projects with public and institutional financial partners. His responsibilities included project creation, acquisitions, conceiving and directing merchandising and leasing efforts, executing major chain store transactions, directing planning, design, engineering and construction efforts, as well as equity and debt restructuring.
Bruce graduated with distinction from Stanford University with special departmental honors in Economics and obtained his law degree from the University of Southern California. He is a licensed attorney and general contractor. Mr. Zimmerman is the author of Shopping Center DealMaker's Handbook®, its software, and numerous feature articles in real estate trade and legal journals. He has been a speaker at various ICSC events, including the US Law Conference.
Douglas B. Pichard co-founded Clarion Consulting in 1997 to best provide corporate retail clients the highly specialized and comprehensive real estate, and financial services that compose Clarion's practice.
Doug's career started with IBM and after nine years in marketing and management positions, his real estate career began in 1985. For the next seven years Doug completed a wide variety of transactions throughout the country, representing corporate clients. In 1993, recognizing a need and a business niche, Doug introduced what became Clarion's unique services. He co-directed the practice at a consulting firm that was then acquired by a Big Five accounting firm in 1995.
Mr. Pichard is responsible for the strategy, oversight and management of Clarion Consulting. With invaluable input from clients, associates, shopping center owners and their advisors, he has guided the expansion and refinement of the firm's services over the years. He has directed hundreds of projects in over 40 states providing hundreds of millions of dollars in savings and hundreds of other value-added benefits for the firm's clients.
Doug graduated from the University of Colorado, with a major in History and a minor in Business. He received an Executive MBA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been devoted to Children's Hospital of Orange County, having served in many capacities and on the Board for 16 years.
Greg S. George brings a diverse track record in retail real estate to Clarion Consulting with achievements in land acquisition, marketing, sales and operations. His primary focus for over 35 years has been on new store development. Greg's first ten years in corporate real estate were with McDonald's Corporation and Ralph's Grocery Company where he held various positions while opening scores of new locations.
Mr. George served in various positions for The Home Depot spanning an 18-year period where he became responsible for the portfolio expansion strategy, lease negotiation and operations in the Western Region. At Home Depot, Greg implemented over 85 new store openings which resulted in over $15 billion of added corporate book value. He directed a development team of consultants, including civil, geotechnical, and environmental engineers and architects along with land use and transactional attorneys.
Greg served as the Western Regional Director of Real Estate Development for Sears, Roebuck and Company for a two-year period. Greg was the Regional Vice President of Real Estate for Dick's Sporting Goods, where he managed store development in the western states, from site selection through lease negotiation. Mr. George currently is Vice President of Real Estate for Fitness International.
Greg graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He has completed various courses in location and management of shopping centers and is a guest lecturer at USC's School of Real Estate.
James N. Orth began his career with IBM spending seven years in various marketing and geographic industry management positions. He then moved to the Oil and Gas industry where he became an officer of a small exploration and drilling company. He subsequently co-founded an investment banking company, which included a securities broker-dealer and a real estate brokerage.
Mr. Orth has an extensive background in the real estate industry as a commercial and residential mortgage broker, having structured and funded syndications and arranged both equity and debt financings. In many situations he acted as a principal as well as in a broker/banker capacity. Jim also co-founded and was an officer of a residential mortgage business process outsourcing company, which was sold after five years of consecutive profitability to an international BPO company. Additionally, Mr. Orth has advised and represented the buyers and sellers in the acquisition and/or merger of a variety of businesses. He has worked closely with Clarion Consulting since its inception and became a partner in 2007.
Jim earned a B.S. from the University of Wyoming with a triple major in Economics, Mathematics-Statistics, and French. He continued his education with graduate work in the MBA program at the University of Colorado, specializing in Finance.
"Businesses must capitalize on their strengths, not simply shore up weaknesses. A disciplined focus on executing the organization's core strategy is key to success for both landlords and tenants."
James R. Hornecker began his real estate career in 2000 at Albertsons in Boise, Idaho doing fuel center development. He transferred to Albertsons' Jewel-Osco division in Chicago where he worked with Clarion Consulting as a client. After Jewel-Osco was acquired by Supervalu, he was promoted to Minneapolis and furthered his leadership and deal-making responsibilities.
Jim then worked at Coborn's, a St. Cloud, Minnesota based regional grocer where he led the store development and maintenance departments while focusing on an aggressive expansion program in North Dakota. At Twin Cities-based Oppidan Investment Company, a national property development firm, Jim successfully completed real estate developments from coast-to-coast.
Mr. Hornecker joined Clarion Consulting in 2019 and works closely with retail clients to create and implement strategic and project-specific plans. His analytic approach, clarity, and thoughtful personality enable him to work effectively with retail clients and shopping center Owners on strategy, negotiation, and execution.
Kristopher K. Reaser joined Clarion Consulting in 2018. He was recruited by Clarion's team after being highly recommended by friends of the firm.
Kris brought to Clarion nearly 20 years of experience in retail, tech sales and real estate. From 2002 to 2012 he managed a Sprint retail store, with responsibilities of developing and managing the sales force, increasing revenues, and assisting with outside sales operations.
From 2012 to 2018 Kris worked with the world's leading online real estate marketplace, Auction.com, which later became Ten-X. As Short Sale Client Manager he proficiently used leading edge online auction technologies to market and manage short sale assets, while assisting buyers throughout the process. As Operations Manager he oversaw all quality aspects of marketing reports and requirements, streamlining efficiencies for this fast-paced environment.
As Senior Manager, Kris utilizes his experience and skills to best support Clarion's team, its clients and so many associated with the ownership of retail properties. He develops and implements the startup plans for assigned projects. Using his analytic experience, he provides data-intensive internal reports for Clarion as well as project reports for clients. He enjoys close relationships with others in order to best provide his highly valued service and results.
Michael F. Reuling practiced law for two years and in 1973, began a 28 year career with Albertson's, Inc. Mike began as a real estate attorney, then managed the legal department of Skaggs Albertson's, and in 1978 became General Counsel of Albertson's.
In 1981, Mike was named Senior VP of Real Estate. In 1987 he became Executive VP of Store Development with responsibility for real estate, design and construction. Mike managed a team that developed hundreds of supermarkets and drugstores with an annual capital budget exceeding $2 billion.
Mr. Reuling played a key role in Albertson's merger and acquisition program. Upon consummation of the merger of Albertson's and American Stores Company in 1999, Mike assumed the role of Vice Chairman of the merged company with responsibility for store development, information technology, human resources and finance. He retired in 2001 and has since worked as a real estate development consultant and as Senior Partner for Clarion Consulting.
Mike received a B.A. from Carleton College and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. He served nine years on the board of Capitol City Development Corporation, the redevelopment agency for the city of Boise, Idaho. In 2019, Mike completed ten years of service on the board of Saint Alphonsus Health System (including two years as board chair). He has also served on the boards of several other non-profit organizations.
Michael K. Ward brings over 20 years of experience in retail real estate development, lease negotiations, acquisitions and dispositions to Clarion Consulting. His work and relationship with the Clarion team dates to 2010.
Mike began his commercial real estate career in the 1990's at Grubb & Ellis where he leased and sold over a million square feet of commercial space. Next, Mike worked for over ten years for both a private and a public shopping center development and ownership company where he was responsible for development work and numerous acquisitions. He also spent five years as a retail investment sales broker, representing institutional and private investors.
Throughout his career Mr. Ward has specialized in retail leasing /tenant representation, investment sales, acquisitions, dispositions and the development & redevelopment of both small & large value-added shopping centers. He's directed the acquisition process for numerous portfolios and one-off shopping centers across the US. Mike's specific responsibilities included conducting all due diligence, proforma analysis, project design, tenant negotiations, city and county negotiations, entitlement processing and hiring and managing the various consultants and construction management teams.
Mike earned his B.A. and his Master's degrees from University of Southern California. He is an active member of ICSC, ACRE, USC Alumni Association and USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.
Robert C. Drury brings more than 30 years of experience in retail real estate development, lease negotiations, acquisitions and dispositions to Clarion Consulting. His work with the Clarion team dates back to 1994.
Mr. Drury began his career at Triad Partners, Inc., a boutique real estate firm where he developed and built more than 1.5 million square feet of retail shopping center space. He then co-directed programs at first a consulting firm, then later a Big Five accounting firm that concentrated on maximizing the value of a retail tenant's leased properties.
For 15 years, from 1997 to 2012, Bob specialized in real estate development and redevelopment opportunities, primarily value-added neighborhood retail shopping centers. He has directed the acquisition of multiple closed grocery stores, identified and completed the acquisition and redevelopment of over 50 other properties, consisting of various portfolios of stores and over 30 shopping centers, totaling over three million square feet. Mr. Drury's responsibilities included conducting all due diligence, proforma analysis, project design, tenant negotiations, city and county negotiations, entitlement processing and hiring and managing the various consultants and construction management teams. Currently, Bob is the Managing Director at CREXi.
Bob earned his B.S. and J.D. degrees from the Western State University, College of Law after first attending California State University, Long Beach. He is a Board Member of the Real Estate Management Program at the University of California, Irvine, Graduate School of Management.