In conjunction with Brookfield Asset Management’s recapitalization of bankrupt mall REIT General Growth Properties, Brookfield president Steve Douglas has resigned to become executive vice president and chief financial officer at General Growth.

Brookfield has not yet replaced Douglas, the firm said.

General Growth went bankrupt last year. It is now exiting from bankruptcy due to the recapitalization.

“We thank Steve for his invaluable contributions to the success of Brookfield Properties,” Brookfield chief executive officer Ric Clark said. “We thank Steve for his invaluable contributions to the success of Brookfield properties and wish him well as he joins General Growth.”

Brookfield owns, develops and manages office properties, with a current portfolio of 93 properties totaling 70 million square feet in New York, Boston, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Houston, Toronto, Calgary and Ottawa.

Real estate investment services firm Marcus & Millichap has named John Kerin president and chief executive officer effective July 1. A senior vice president and managing director, Kerin oversees 18 offices nationwide.

He replaces longtime Marcus & Millichap head Harvey Green, who retired earlier this year. “Exiting stage left is not easy to do,” Green told CPE at the time. “You don’t want to overstay.”

Kerin joined the firm in 1981 and was subsequently promoted to senior investment associate. In 1987 he was promoted to reginal manager of the Los Angeles office. In 1994, he was elected first vice president and then managing director in 1996.

“The recent market dislocation reinvigorated the importance of value-added brokerage, which has always been Marcus & Millichap’s driving force,” Kerin said when the news was announced. “We have demonstrated our unique ability to help investors strategize and have executed more transactions than any other source in one of the most difficult markets. More than any other time, there are significant opportunities to bring more efficiency to the market place and substantially grow our financing, transaction and advisory services.”

Marcus & Millichap has 1,200 employees nationwide and closed more than 3,400 transactions in 2009.

Renee Lewis has been named head of Hudson Realty Capital L.L.C.’s asset management department. Currently the managing director of the department, Hudson is based in Manhattan and is a real estate fund manager specializing in middle-market investing.

Lewis will oversee strategy and execution on all Hudson’s debt and equity positions along with managing the firm’s asset management professionals and systems. She will remain a member of Hudson’s management committee, working to determine the company’s strategic direction.

She joined Hudson as a principal in 2006 and has been associated with it since its inception in 2002. Previously Lewis was founder and president of Questor, where she was responsible for oversight of due diligence and underwriting services for more than $30 billion in non-performing and performing real estate loans.

“Throughout her distinguished career, Renee Lewis has demonstrated outstanding deal analysis and risk mitigation experience,” Hudson managing director and founding member David Loo said when announcing the news. “She has contributed significantly towards Hudson’s ability to negotiate the current volatile market conditions.”

Timothy Proctor has been named as a senior vice president and commercial real estate market director for TD Bank’s metro Philadelphia region.

Proctor, who has 23 years of experience in banking, lending and finance throughout the metropolitan Philadelphia and New Jersey markets, will manage and expand the bank’s existing commercial real estate platform. That platform encompasses offices in Cherry Hill, N.J., King of Prussia, Penn., and Philadelphia.

Before joining TD, Proctor served as the New Jersey regional manager for the real estate banking group at Wells Fargo Bank in Basking Ridge, N.J. While at Wells Fargo, he provided financing services to real estate investors and developers throughout the region. He is a member of the New Jersey Apartment Association and past president of the Greater Philadelphia chapter of NAIOP.

TD Bank has $160 billion in assets and more than 1,100 locations from Maine to Florida. The company is headquartered in Cherry Hill, N.J. and Portland, Maine.

Mark Carrell and Shirley Hawley have joined GPE Management Services, bringing nearly half a decade of combined property-management experience to the Scottsdale, Az.-based firm.

Carrell has 33 years of management experience in office, retail, industrial, medical office, back-office and special-use properties along with 26 years of redevelopment experience. He will manage the West Coast Capital Partners portfolio, which comprises more than 200,000 square feet of retail and office space.

Hawley has worked in the Phoenix commercial property management sphere for since 1997, and will spearhead the management, leasing and administration of the Phoenix portfolio held by RJ Realty Investors. That comprises eight buildings and 222,000 square feet.

The duo will also work to expand the scope of the property management division.

Founded in 1973, GPE Commercial Advisors and GPE Management Services provide sales, leasing, property management and consulting.

Senior services will be a growth industry for decades to come as aging baby boomers reach their golden years. Colliers International is the latest firm to step up its efforts in this area. On Thursday the company formally unveiled a new national specialty practice that will focus on the housing needs of the elderly.

Colliers International is billing its new seniors housing group as a provider of finance, transaction and planning services to investors and owners. The unit will target a wide range of residential categories geared toward the aging, such as assisted living and independent living facilities, nursing homes, and facilities for dementia patients. Recognizing the central role of medical care for older people, the seniors housing group will also target such facilities as hospitals, medical office buildings and surgical centers.

To oversee the group, Colliers International tapped 18-year industry veteran Mark Silver (pictured). Silver , who will run the practice from his base of operations in New York City, most recently served as a co-leader of the national seniors housing group at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. “With an aging population, the Seniors Housing sector is a critical and growing niche,” Silver commented in a statement.

The seniors housing group is the second specialized service group announced by Colliers International this month. Previously the firm formed a practice focused on transactions related to the life-sciences sector in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Earlier this year, Colliers International completed its decade-long transformation from a network of mostly locally owned firms to a centrally governed company.

Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons user kevindooley

Voit Real Estate Services just keeps spreading its wings. This month the firm has opened a Phoenix office: its eighth in total.

The opening is actually a re-opening: the Newport Beach, Calif.-based company has previously had a Phoenix office, but closed it in 2008 during the recession.

So could this herald the return of good times to the market? Perhaps.

“We are establishing this Arizona office as part of an exciting ‘boots on the ground’ campaign designed to make the Voit platform of services more accessible to investors, banks, financial institutions and special servicers for which we serve as surrogate owners of their assets,” CEO Robert Voit said when announcing the news. “Our expertise in this market includes our development and construction activities dating back to the early 1970s.”

According to Voit, the firm’s expansion initiative will allow it to offer asset and property management, brokerage, construction and development services, financial analysis, property condition assessment and market research in the Phoenix area. The office is Voit’s eighth.

Voit was founded in 1971 and currently has 170 employees. It has owned, developed and managed more than 45 million square feet of commercial real estate, participated in $1.3 billion worth of construction projects and completed more than $32 billion in brokerage transaction volume.

Sierra Realty Corp. president James Wacht said today that Gary Zaid has been hired as senior vice president of residential property management.

Zaid previously served as an owner’s representative at A.S. Realty Partners, where he negotiated $37 million in sales and managed $14 million in construction projects. He is also the former president and CEO of G.S. Universal Construction, Inc., which managed more than $90 million in projects including the $75 million Chelsea Towers and the Carl Fisher Building, both in New York City.

“Gary’s impressive portfolio underscores his industry experience, shrewd business sense and versatility in all areas of project management,” Watcht said when making the announcement.

Sierra was founded in 1953 and provides commercial and multi-family property management services, office and store leasing, real estate consulting, advisory services to building owners and tenants, comprehensive construction services and acquisitions and investment advice. The company manages 50 buildings comprising 2,000 residential units and approximately 600,000 square feet of office and retail space in New York City.

Dean Kaufman and Bret Davis have joined Jones Lang LaSalle in Las Vegas. Both will serve as senior vice presidents, specializing in assisting office tenants and landlords.

Kaufman comes to JLL from Colliers International, where he represented office tenants and landlords and handled commercial sales. Davis previously worked at CB Richard Ellis, where he provided landlord and tenant representation services. He has executed more than 3.2 million square feet of new, renewal and expansion leases valued in excess of $450 million.

“Our goals for these new positions are to service existing tenant representation clients for both office and industrial transactions, increase and diversify the revenue for the office, maintain and attract top talent, expand our integrated suite of services including agency leasing, property management and capital markets, and leverage our international platform to further grow the business in Las Vegas,” JLL managing director Jeffrey Ingham told CPE.

Ingham said said that today’s economy makes it difficult, if not impossible, to invest. However, they say they are in a position to continue to invest in growing both their platform and geographic areas.

And, he added, there is also opportunity.

“In the commercial real estate brokerage business, top talent is not likely to move in a strong real estate market,” Ingham told CPE. “The current economy is providing Jones Lang LaSalle the opportunity to grow our brokerage business, which will have a long-term positive impact on our overall business.”

Shopping-center owner, operator and developer Regency Centers has tapped Barbara Johnston as senior vice president, general counsel. Johnston will be responsible for leading and directing nationwide legal activities with in-house staff and outside counsel, along with advising management on matters including legal rights, obligations and risks for real estate transactions, wide-ranging company matters, and general corporate compliance. She will also serve as corporate secretary for the company’s board of directors.

Johnston most recently served as partner with McGuireWoods L.L.P.’s Jacksonville, Fla., office, practicing business law with an emphasis on mergers, acquisitions and divestitures as well as general corporate law matters. She has previously served as general counsel for Florida Rock Industries, Inc., as well as a law clerk for Judge Susan Black of the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida. She holds a J.D. from the University of Florida and is a member of the Jacksonville Bar Association and the Florida Bar.

“We are pleased to have Barbara join our senior management team at Regency Centers,” president and CEO Brian Smith said when announcing the news. “She is a highly respected attorney with a wealth of experience and knowledge.”

As of the first quarter of this year, Regency owned 399 retail properties, including those held in co-investment partnerships. The company’s portfolio encompasses 53.2 million square feet throughout the United States. Since 2000, it has developed 201 shopping centers, representing an investment at completion of $3 billion.