The high-powered team of Darla Longo and Barbara Emmons are an anomaly in the industrial real estate profession. Not only do the women business partners individually hold high-ranking positions in the male-oriented industrial real estate segment, but they are also sisters. Based in the Valley and Ontario, the pair head up L.A.-based brokerage firm CBRE Group Inc.’s West Coast National Partners team covering California and surrounding states. Last year, the 17-person team led by the two women brokered 59 deals worth more than $8 billion in the West Coast region. And the pair are part of a larger group that negotiated deals worth $23 billion. Both hold the prestigious vice chairman title within CBRE, the highest brokers can hold. Each has also been among the top 3 percent of brokers by performance at CBRE. Emmons, a 26-year CBRE veteran, is based in the brokerage’s Glendale office and handled leasing for 12 years before joining with Longo in 1996. Now she specializes in industrial building sales primarily, but also handles office transactions and land sales. She’s handled over 12,000 acres of complex land sales. Longo, in Ontario, is the first woman in the company’s history to be elected to the CBRE board of directors and is a managing director of CBRE’s West Coast Institutional Group. She received the Los Angeles Business Journal award in 2013, 2012 and 2011 for the greatest number of sales transactions and total annual sales results by deal volume. Being women in the industry has had more advantages than disadvantages, the pair say. “In the beginning, I was different, and people would remember me,” Longo said. “As long as I was intelligent and could do the work, I had a strategic advantage.” Emmons and Longo started out working separately in real estate and talked only occasionally about partnering. Joining forces didn’t happen until 1996. “Our father passed away in 1996 – it was the impetus for us,” Emmons said. “Things aligned, and we started working together.” While commercial real estate is still mostly a man’s world, it’s becoming one females increasingly share – particularly on the pair’s team. Out of 15 brokers, four are women – including Emmons and Longo – while seven women serve in support roles. “Having so many women on a commercial real estate team is unusual, as it is a male-dominated field,” Longo said. House Switch After 15 years in commercial real estate, top office broker Ryan House is going to the other side. House, based in Valencia, will be using his brokerage skills and relationships to boost business for the residential property management company he and his wife, Tamar House, have owned since 2010 and she has been running. All Valley Leasing Inc. in Valencia manages single-family homes and townhomes for the small, individual investor looking to buy residential properties worth up to $1 million. All Valley finds and vets tenants, handles the lease paperwork and then collects the rent. “I don’t want to say it’s a 180-degree switch, but it’s somewhere between 90-degrees and 180-degrees,” House said. “It’s a remarkable opportunity. Retail and apartments are the two hottest markets for small investors. People, if they have no debt on their primary residence, will refinance that and go out and buy new.” The business manages 125 homes now and will soon manage its first large property, a four-plex residential building, House said. All Valley also helps prospective tenants find places to rent, but it’s getting increasingly difficult. “Rental demand for our single-family and townhomes is so high you can lease out a property within a day,” House said. Previously, House handled office leasing for Chicago-based brokerage firm Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., so to keep his foot in the door and continue building relationships with the local business community, he took a position as senior vice president handling commercial real estate with the primarily residential real estate-focused JohnHart Real Estate in Valencia. House said he plans to bring his research and analysis skills – critical tools in commercial real estate – to the residential part of the market as a value-added benefit for investors to help them manage their assets. “We would run our analysis in conjunction with what they do on their end, rather than just sell them a home,” House explained. Top Financier Encino’s Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp., the finance brokering arm of Calabasas-based commercial real estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap Inc., has named Danny Abergel, first vice president of capital markets, as its top financing professional for 2015. Abergel, who joined the company in 2006, arranged 131 commercial debt and equity financing deals last year worth more than $420 million, the company said. Staff Reporter Carol Lawrence can be reached at (818) 316-3123 or [email protected].
