California People and Company News, Week of Nov. 1, 2024

• BH Properties, a vertically integrated, value-add real estate investment company, appointed commercial real estate veteran Mark Workman as managing director, investment and asset management. Workman brings more than 17 years of commercial real estate experience, most recently as an SVP of asset management for Lincoln Property Company in Los Angeles, where he was responsible for a commercial portfolio totaling more than three million square feet in all asset classes. 

• CIM Group is expanding its insurance-focused client solutions, forming a specialized insurance industry team. The insurance team will offer tailored strategies and partnerships to insurance companies across North America within areas such as CIM Group’s real estate, infrastructure and credit businesses. Overseeing this initiative is Bernard “Bernie” Ryan, who joins CIM Group as Managing Director and Head of Insurance. Based in Boston, Ryan brings 23 years of experience in the investment management industry to his new position at CIM Group. 

• JLL has expanded its Southern California retail brokerage business. The firm has hired 15-year Los Angeles retail real estate veteran Ryan Hawley as VP. With his previous experience working in-house for two prominent retail developers, Hawley will specialize in working with property owners on their real estate needs. Most recently, he worked at Cypress Equity Investments and before that spent 12 years at Caruso, overseeing three high-profile properties encompassing one million square feet.  

• Cushman & Wakefield has strengthened its life sciences advisory services by hiring Evan Cassolato as managing director in San Diego. Cassolato specializes in leasing life sciences space, advising life science companies and developers. He also becomes a member of Cushman & Wakefield’s national Life Sciences Advisory group. Cassolato joins Cushman & Wakefield from Longfellow Real Estate Partners, the largest privately held life science real estate owner in the nation.

• Mill Valley-based Redwood Trust, Inc., a leader in expanding access to housing for homebuyers and renters, has hired Abhinav Asthana as CTO. With a distinguished track record of driving progress in mortgage technology, Abhinav will lead the company’s efforts to enhance its product offerings by expanding its digital capabilities and artificial intelligence footprint. Additionally, Jason Kopcak recently joined Redwood as head of alternative strategies, with a mandate to deepen the company’s presence in alternative non-agency products and expand distribution channels. 

• Nadia Geller Designs (NGD), an award-winning interior design firm offering services across the real estate community, has completed the interior design installation at Portico, an eight-story resort-style multifamily community on the waterfront of San Francisco Bay. The 378-unit multifamily opportunity zone project in the Brooklyn Basin offers studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and townhomes that overlook the water.   

• ChargePoint, a provider of networked charging solutions for electric vehicles (EVs), introduced the ChargePoint Essential cloud plan. It offers a competitively priced software fee that is covered by driver payments for charging. All revenue beyond this fee is remitted back to the station owner monthly, and activation of the stations is included under the Essentials plan at no extra charge. 

Next Wednesday, learn from and network with experts from ICSC, Caruso, Anderson Real Estate, Primestor, and more at this year’s Connect Retail West conference. Don’t miss out, be at the Luxe Sunset Blvd Hotel for the leading retail CRE event next week on Nov. 6! Be sure to register in advance, registration pricing increases on event day!