Leider, Clarke Open New Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Office
Well-known brokerage team joins forces with national outfit as Leider Hayes firm breaks up.
Lee & Associates, the nation’s fourth-largest commercial real estate firm, has opened an office in Santa Barbara under the ownership of veteran brokerage team Steve Leider and Clarice Cornell Clarke.
The Santa Barbara office, at 1111 Chapala St., joins three other tri-counties locations in Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo and Ventura. Its principals, Leider and Clarke, began operating with L&A on Aug. 1 along with one associate, Jarod King.
“There’s continual pressure on consolidation in this industry, but there’s more pressure to stay on the cutting edge,” Leider said. “It becomes increasingly challenging for small-firm technology.”
When Bill Lee, founder of L&A, approached Leider and Clarke with an offer to open a Santa Barbara office, Leider says it was an opportunity to live up to the increasing demand of clients.
“What he offers us is a bigger platform for business. All 40 (L&A) offices have local ownership by the individuals in it so you don’t see that corporate structure,” Leider explained. “We control our decisions, so that was attractive to us.”
L&A runs corporate commercial real estate in a unique way. Essentially, each office is broker-owned and each owner becomes a shareholder in the firm. The premise for the system is that it creates regionally smart and invested brokers who don’t answer to a removed third party.
King started as a broker’s assistant with Leider Hayes in 2004 and has now joined L&A as an associate. He said the merger is exciting because it means applying national resources to the group’s vast local knowledge.
“We are going to add credibility for national tenants we work with and there’s a lot more networking opportunities,” he said.
In such a demanding and competitive market, the resources and technology of a corporate firm can make all the difference, especially in comparison with that available to smaller boutique firms like Leider Hayes, which was dissolved Aug. 1. Hayes has since started Hayes Commercial.
“Certainly we can offer a bigger product array than what we had before,” said Leider. He explained that because business in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties is constrained with a high entry barrier, having the extra network of offices is extremely helpful.
“If a client needs to make an investment we have the ability to call 30 other offices and see what they’ve got,” he said.
As far as the local market for commercial real estate is concerned, Leider says there’s no question it has slowed down. He relates it to a ripple effect that has especially affected Lompoc and Santa Maria.
“From a retailer’s perspective, with of the cost of housing and the price of gas, and relying on employees coming in who are living in Buellton or Santa Maria, companies aren’t expanding,” he said.
Leider also commented on the controversial Santa Barbara height initiative, saying the city is “talking out of both sides of its mouth” by encouraging more workforce housing but still facing the problem of cost per unit.
“The price of development in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara is high, and unless you can get enough units, which means you have to go up, that makes it prohibitive,” he said.
In the coming months, Leider and Clarke plan to fully staff their new Chapala office and continue to draw on the new resources available to them.
Noozhawk intern Mollie Helmuth can be reached at .
» wrote on 08/18/08 @ 02:10 PM
Why does this advertisement need to be morphed by an intern writer? Just admit is raw advertising under the guise of news or whatever content and skip the exercise of news credibility by having staff, even an intern, dealing with it. Is this “news” because a Realtor is complaining about the City height initiative on the ballot?
» wrote on 08/18/08 @ 08:39 PM
Thanks for the article. I had heard that the Leider Hayes firm had split up but didn’t know the particulars. Both Steves are good guys and have been active in the county for a long time. I wish them both good luck.
» wrote on 08/18/08 @ 08:57 PM
I agree, this is an advertisement masquerading as news and should not be included! I am disappointed in Noozhawk!
» wrote on 08/19/08 @ 10:05 AM
Isn’t Noozhawk’s story on Heal the Ocean an “advertisement”? Heck, it even tells you how you can donate money. There’s another story about the new athletic director at UCSB and that story is all about UCSB. Yesterday there was a story on the Autism Society that had no “news value.”
Tsk tsk. How dare Noozhawk provide us with this kind of information! We can’t handle it!
» wrote on 08/19/08 @ 12:23 PM
Noozhawk, you are continually shaming the News[Sup]Press with your broad coverage of stories and viewpoints. Appears that some folks don’t know the difference between advertising and reporting. So here’s a question for ‘Just… [too long a name]’ and ‘M’: why would the Noozhawk turn down advertising revenue to publish an ad as a story? Or are you assuming Noozhawk was paid to publish the story? One can find people in SB to object to almost anything and to assume the worst of everyone.
[Editor’s note: No, we’re not being paid to publish stories. We do disclose where they come from, however. From the start, we’ve encouraged the community — which includes businesses — to share their stories with us and our readers. Submission guidelines can be found on our home page, top right corner under “Submit Your News."]
» wrote on 08/19/08 @ 01:40 PM
An article that profiles a non-profit organization or local university is a bit different from a blatant plug for a real estate sales firm. What is next? An “article” about how another real estate sales firm now has some swank beach cottages for rent? Oh, wait, Noozhawk did that one too!
» wrote on 08/19/08 @ 01:50 PM
I get it. A couple of your trust-funder readers don’t like business. Here’s a suggestion: Could you give us more business coverage? We really can’t get that information daily and I think a lot more of your readers would appreciate it. You know, the ones that work.
» wrote on 08/19/08 @ 05:50 PM
You seem to be missing the point of Noozhawk. I don’t want to speak for them but they seem to be publishing all kinds of articles. Some aren’t really news but all of them are informative. And there’s a lot more interesting things to read on Noozhawk than I find on other so-called newspapers in Santa Barbara. Noozhawk is all I need to read. (They didn’t pay me to say that but I’ll gladly accept payment.)
[Editor’s note: Nice try.]