Kidder Mathews Expands in SoCal

By Gail Kalinoski

Jeff Lyon, Kidder Mathews CEO

Irvine, Calif.—Kidder Mathews, the largest independently owned commercial real estate firm on the West Coast, is continuing its Southern California expansion, acquiring Alden Management Group and preparing to finalize a merger with Heger Industrial.

Alden is a commercial property management firm with a large portfolio of office, industrial and retail properties in Southern California. It will be rebranded to Kidder Mathews within the next several weeks and the Alden staff will relocate to the Kidder Mathews’ Irvine office bringing the firm’s property management division to 178 people and over 45 million square feet of managed properties.

“As we continued to increase our presence in Southern California, we were fortunate to meet Andrew Zimbaldi, president and founder of Alden Management Group, who was mutually interested in increasing his footprint of properties and market presence. It was a great opportunity for both firms to grow, “Jeff Lyon, Kidder Mathews CEO, said in a prepared statement.

Zimbaldi will join Kidder Mathews as senior vice president and continue to lead property management operations for the firm in the Greater Los Angeles Basin.

Andrew Zimbaldi, Kidder Mathews SVP

“Over the past several months, we’ve had a handful of firms interested in acquiring our company, but Kidder Mathews impressed us as having the most complete scope of services to benefit our clients and the most attractive environment and platform for our employees,” Zimbaldi stated.

Kidder Mathews, which has been growing over the last two years, has more than 650 professionals and staff members in 20 offices in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and California. The firm, which offers a range of brokerage, appraisal, property management, consulting, sustainability and project and construction management services for all property types, now has 12 offices in California. In addition to Irvine, it has locations in Long Beach, Commerce, San Diego, Orange County, Inland Empire, Carlsbad, San Francisco, Redwood City, San Jose and Sacramento/Roseville.

It will be growing again on March 1, when it finalizes a merger with Los Angeles-based Heger Industrial, a brokerage and property management firm. The merger was announced earlier this month. Financial details were not released by the two firms, but the deal calls for the merged company to retain the Kidder Mathews name and operating structure. Heger’s CEO Robert Thornburgh, one of the most respected CRE professionals in the Los Angeles market, will join the Kidder Mathews executive leadership committee. He will help drive the firm’s overall vision, growth and strategy as well as help grow the portfolio. Thornburgh and his partner, executive vice president Tom Holland will serve as executive vice presidents and partners at Kidder Mathews.

Heger currently manages one of the largest independent industrial portfolios in the Los Angeles areas. It employs 35 real estate professionals and staff and has offices in Long Beach and Commerce in California and in Phoenix.

“Merging with Kidder Mathews is the ideal next step in ensuring that our clients always come first,” Thornburgh said in a prepared statement. “Both firms share a dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit. Merging Heger’s local presence, reputation, success and insights, with Kidder Mathews’ enhanced services platform and market reach only increases our total capabilities.”

Lyon said merging with Heger will enable Kidder Mathews to expand its full-service platform for all property types and provides a nucleus in Los Angeles.

“Heger Industrial has an exceptional reputation, and our professionals know each other through common clients and in the natural course of business,” he noted.

Lyon said the team also knew each other through the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors. Thornburgh is the current global vice president of SIOR and will become its global president in 2018.

Like Zimbaldi of Alden Management Group, Thornburgh and Holland said Kidder Mathews was the right partner to enhance and expand their offerings. They also noted the importance of a shared culture.

“The Kidder Mathews professionals and leadership represent the same integrity and high standards that we have developed at Heger, giving both sides a strong desire to work together and grow,” Holland stated.