Business Journal names real estate elite.

In presenting our third annual Who's Who in Commercial Real Estate report, the Los Angeles Business Journal has incorporated some significant revisions.

Most visibly, we've divided the 100 "most influential" stand-outs in L.A.'s commercial property arena into 10 professional categories.

While many powerful real estate pros obviously wear multiple functional "hats," we endeavored to place each honoree in the category with which he or she is most notably identified. And we've selected one individual from each category for a special "mini-profile" emphasizing his or her most noteworthy accomplishments since we published last year's report.

We'd also like to stress that - as happens each year - there are at least three qualified individuals for each of the 100 slots within the Who's Who directory.

The writer and a handful of industry veterans consulted with Assistant Managing Editor Michael Stremfel, who made the final decisions and - as always - takes all credit and blame for them. We'll also point out here that we would like to have included a few others not appearing in the report this year. But they did not respond to our survey in time to meet our deadline.

The specific categories we selected say much about our approach to naming this year's hefty hundred.

Brokerage representatives

As was the case the first two times around, the directory appears heavily weighted in favor of the brokerage discipline - all those successful dealmakers who facilitate so many key office, industrial and retail property transactions. However, we made a concerted effort to reduce the broker count this year, for two primary reasons.

First, we decided that the folks the brokers represent deserve more recognition - as some of the categories suggest. And second, most members of L.A.'s commercial brokerage community already participate in the Business Journal's annual "Top Performers" awards, which honor those dealmakers primarily on the basis of commissions earned.

We've also broken the brokers into two categories: L.A.'s most influential commissioned commercial property dealmakers, and the market's top brokerage executives. Clearly, that entails some inherent overlap.

We included firm principals such as John Cushman and Jim Travers in the broker category, while renowned dealmakers who also play significant administrative roles - such as Barry Beitler, Howard Sadowsky and Jerry Porter - ended up on the executive roster.

Institutional players

Perhaps more importantly, categorization emphasizes the influential roles of many key decision-makers whom the brokers represent.

Clearly, some of the nation's huge financial institutions have come to play an increasingly significant role here during the 1990s, as so many of their debt investments have converted to equity interests. And some real estate entrepreneurs have managed to maintain sizable portfolios despite the distress.

Hence, we present a Landlords/Owners category featuring top executives of both institutional owners and real estate specialists with major stakes in L.A.

Many of the major institutions in particular are engaging the services of leading leasing/management specialist firms, rather than traditional commissioned brokers. Hence, this year's Who's Who includes several professionals from those operations.

As institutions dispose of properties they take back, several local income-property investors are making aggressive "contrarian" plays. A somewhat overlapping group of professionals includes those who manage such investments in an advisory capacity on behalf of the more liberal institutional investors.

We've placed L.A.'s leading investment pros into either the Investors/Buyers or Investment Advisors/Asset Managers category.

And now that we're seeing demand for commercial space actually exceed supply in select marketplaces, certain local developers are making positive news again. It's at least enough to warrant their own category.

This year's roster also features a handful of "corporate" real estate executives who make key decisions for the most noteworthy tenants behind the improving demand. Predictably, the Tenants category carries an entertainment/media slant.

Also included this year are a handful of local government officials who carry great influence over commercial real estate matters, and some of the leading service professionals: consultants, attorneys, architects and the like.