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Deanna Drake-Copelan

Company: 

Avison Young

Telecommuted for two months from San Francisco to San Diego to start-up and act as on-site interim general manager for 655 West Broadway

For more than a year, initiated and acted as on-site interim general manager for 650 Townsend Street, 700,000-square-foot class-A mid-rise for the CalSTRS/Beacon Capital Partners account

Conducted due diligence/consulting projects for Meridian Capital Partners, a 72,000-square-foot suburban office and Glendale USA, 400,000-square-foot class A development.

Deanna Drake-Copelan has more than 26 years of experience as an owner’s representative in commercial real estate, where her key strengths include property management, asset management, financial analysis, project management and due diligence for buyers and sellers.  

Drake-Copelan was recently awarded principal status and West Coast director, real estate management services-property management for Avison Young. In this role, she oversees the management and operations of a diverse portfolio of properties throughout the Western region working with key clients such as Beacon Capital Partners, LaSalle Real Estate Investment, LACERA, MetLife Real Estate and JP Morgan.  

“The growth that we have achieved in the Western Region, especially in Northern California and Seattle, would not have happened without Deanna being available to transition large and complex office assets,” says Stan Yoshihara, AY principal and managing director. “Transitioning large assets is never easy, but Deanna pulled together a team that made the process as seamless as it could be. Deanna’s relentless pursuit of achieving the goal at hand led to high performance and desired outcomes. Since that time, Deanna has built a solid team of professionals in a market where talent is scarce and, at times, where it is outright difficult to find the right people for the job.”

These are just a few of the reasons we chose Drake-Copelan as one of the California 2021 Women in Real Estate Award winners. Connect CRE’s Women in Real Estate Awards honor the achievements and inspirational stories of women who have reached respected positions of leadership and play key mentorship roles for others.  

Given the unexpected and devastating impact from the COVID-19 pandemic, Drake-Copelan’s leadership role has been instrumental in keeping essential troops on the front lines of managed buildings motivated, focused and caring; always with the goal of keeping buildings open with safety measures in place. She met the challenge head-on to create newer and safer solutions in helping to prevent the spread of COVID. She was also an integral member of the Avison Young COVID-19 National Task Force, helping to create the protocols and processes to keep buildings open and safe. 

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Avison Young's Drake-Copelan

About Lisa Brown

Lisa Brown has decades of experience in corporate communications and marketing management with organizations including Coldwell Banker Residential, Grubb & Ellis, Marcus & Millichap, NAIOP, SIOR and ALM. In those positions, she worked in conjunction with chief executive officers and chief marketing officers to create corporate messaging, cohesive branding standards, strategic marketing plans and thought pieces. Brown is a frequent speaker at industry events and an editing adjunct professor for an online course. She has a master’s degree in mass communications from San Jose State University.