East Bay Real Estate

So, Jim Walberg was snopping around today at the Rose Garden Retail Center In Danville In order to see which businesses were moving in. And….

I ran into Gary Riele, the partner in the commercial real estate company, Straface Riele. I asked Gary what he was doing there and did he know who some of the other business tenants were that may be moving in. After some significant proding, he said that one of the companies about to sign a lease was the Danville office of Keller Williams Realty - the 4th largets real estate company in North America with over 90,000 Realtors.) Currently, the KW Danville office is located on the corner of El Cerro and the 680 freeway in the Theater Arts Financial Center. ( This was the building that was intended to be the arts center for the Town of Danville that ended up being a front for a financial scam which caused one or more of the principles to eventually be sentenced to jail.)

Gary said the problem KW Danville was having with the owners of their current office space is the Town Of Danville was unwilling to have any signage for their company, even though they were one of the largest tenants in the building. The Town of Danville’s position is the building was approved as a theater arts center, not a commercial center for businesses. Unfortunately for the owners of the building, KW Danville has apparently had enough after five years of no one knowing Keller Williams Realty is in that building, so they started investigating other alternative since their lease is up next month. They want the community to know where they are and it appears they are going to pull it off at the Rose Garden Retail Center - the newest retail center in Danville at the corner of the 680 freeway and Sycamore Valley Road.

Beverly Steiner is the one of the three owners of this Keller Williams office and she was not available for comment about what I had learned from Gary Riele. Kristin White is the Market Center leader and she was also vague about what seems to be unfolding. I tagged along with Gary Riele as he was walking through the office space, and it appears the KW Danville is going BIG with this move. They are taking on 7,200+ square feet of the second floor of the building in the Rose Garden Center which has the big deck on San Ramon Valley Boulevard. As I walked through the open space of the their future office - no walls or ceilings are in yet, I was VERY impressed! Apparently, KW Danville is preparing for over 250 Realtors to be a part of this real estate center!

What I know about the KW business model is that they lead with revenue, and because of this model, they are not being impacted by the current adjustments happening with home sales in the East Bay. They only spend money they actually have. This is allowing them to make this move with the full understanding that no other real estate company in the East Bay is in the expansion mode - they are generall downsizing and/or consolidating their office locations. Since KW Danville is expanding against the trend of companies downsizing, they are committed to fill the void that is being created by those who are creating the “open space” within the real estate industry because of closing and/or sub-leasing their office spaces.

If I was going to make a prediction, I would say that KW Danville is the company that is poised to take over the lion’s share of the real estate market because they are coming from a place of support and belief in the health of the real estate market for Realtors who still want to have this business as their career. The KW motto is, “Building careers worth having, businesses worth owning, and lives worth living.” How in the world could any Realtor not find that appealing as a place to grow their real estate practices.

Your East Bay real estate detective is on duty and will update you as to what I find out about this rumor. If it is true, I will let you know immediately. Contact me anytime for any of your real estate needs. Until next time…

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