Old broom sweeps clean.

CB Commercial Real Estate Group long-timer James Didion, now its chairman, restructures debt and his organization to meet changing era

When young UC-Berkeley grad Jim Didion entered an apprenticeship program with the Coldwell Banker & Co. commercial real estate brokerage in Oakland back in 1962, he worked without any pay for five months before starting at $275 a month.

Fortunately for the man who rose through the ranks to become chairman and CEO of downtown L.A.-based CB Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. - the nation's biggest commercial property services firm - Didion started out in good company.

He worked directly under Coldwell Banker founder Colbert Coldwell on the Oakland escrow desk. In fact, Didion's first property sale at his chosen firm was a Berkeley apartment building Coldwell owned.

Thirty-three years and several business cycles later, he's become the driving strategic force behind the brokerage that handles more business than any other competitor in the nation's commercial realty field.

Accordingly, his salary has risen more than 100-fold since the early paycheck days.

In recent years particularly, fast and furious changes at CB make Didion's multiple boost in compensation seem to pale by comparison.

It was the contemplative, soft-spoken executive - now a white-haired 55 - who led the charge when Coldwell Banker management, employees and other investors bought the firm's commercial real estate organization from Sears Roebuck & Co. in 1989.

And it was certainly he who sat on the hottest seat when real estate markets across the nation subsequently fell apart - sending newly renamed CB Commercial's revenues tumbling just after the firm took on huge sums of acquisition-financing debt.

After helping to restructure the debt to a level at which Didion says he's very comfortable, the president/CEO and his brain trust have continued to restructure the entire CB operation and focus.

As the commercial real estate world nationally - and internationally - has moved toward greater institutional concentration on the ownership side, Didion's primary strategic thrust has been to structure the 2,300-professional firm to better serve institutions.

The evolving structure is likewise aimed at meeting needs of the big corporations and other major "users" that occupy business facilities in multiple locations. Strategic internal changes have also helped CB handle the real estate sales brokerage function more effectively.

And now that commercial property markets across the U.S. are climbing up from their "depressionary" depths, as Didion characterizes the cyclical trough, the strategies he and his teammates have employed are clearly paying off.

"We are on the rebound," Didion notes in typically modest fashion from his equally modest corner office at the modestly appointed CB headquarters building.

"The $430 million in revenues we brought in last year was the best since our peak of $460 million in (pre-recession) 1988," the Sacramento native says. "And we did it under our (downsized) cost structure," he adds, partially explaining the firm's return to profitability.

For 1994 as a whole, CB recorded a net profit of $9.17 million in the wake of steady and substantial net losses the previous four years: $37 million in 1993; $44.5 million in 1992; $83 million in 1991 and $64 million in 1990. The company has slipped slightly back into the red so far in 1995, recording a net loss of about $2.9 million for the first six months.

If Didion takes any personal credit for the apparent turnaround, it's as chief strategic architect.

"As we re-set our agenda, it's been necessary for me to take a broader view consistent with our broader operating structure," Didion says.

Division Presidents Gary Beban and Dick Clotfelter have assumed the key day-to-day operational "execution" responsibilities, Didion says.

CB insiders also note that the hardworking honcho is something of a "rainmaker," bringing substantial new business CB's way through his extensive business and personal relationships and leadership role in key industry organizations such as the Urban Land Institute and National Realty Committee.

"Jim works an extraordinary number of hours, and he has always brought in business by himself. And it helps all of its here that he has extensive contacts across the country," says one local investment specialist who has thrived under the revised CB structure.

"And he's not just a lot of talk. His energy has emanated down to the individual managers," the broker says. "That's very positive for all of us who are producing - it's nice to know that (CB's top executives) aren't riding on my coattails."

For his part, Didion credits his personal work ethic, patience and innate attraction to "a highly creative business" as factors in his rise into the chief executive's office. But he stresses that he never counts the hours he puts into his career each week.

"I'm here a lot, yes, but I really do enjoy what I do," he says. "Much of what I do I just don't see as work.

But Didion's intense concentration on creating "an organization able to deliver an integrated service package on a local, national and global basis" has also occasionally left him a bit misunderstood by his own troops. Some have described him as "aloof," someone who passes others in the hall with little or no acknowledgment.

"I'm really sorry to hear some perceive me that way; it's definitely not my intention," Didion notes with surprise in response to a related query. "But given my active agenda, I can see how it's possible that I can come across that way."

The location of his local residence certainly makes it easier to keep that agenda active - Didion lives at downtown's California Club.

But he and wife Gloria also keep a home up north in Pebble Beach, where he can easily devote time to his two recreational passions: tennis and golf.

When their schedules allow, Didion also visits with his only sibling - sister Joan, the renowned writer who spends much of her time in New York these days.

And Didion will need plenty of distractions, considering his upcoming agenda.

In the wake of CB's recent acquisitions of "tenant rep" brokerage Langdon Rieder Strategic Real Estate Services and investment manager Westmark Realty Advisors, Didion acknowledges that more deals are in the works.

"Our intent is to grow aggressively but judiciously," he says. Didion adds that he's also spending a lot of time formalizing some of the CBC International operation's ever-solidifying alliances with service firms around the globe.

Nor does Didion rule out an eventual public stock offering or some other re-capitalization strategy, should one be deemed beneficial "at some point in the future." But he stresses that nothing of the sort is necessary in the near-term.

"It's not on the board's agenda," he asserts.

RELATED ARTICLE: Snapshot

James J. Didion

Native of: Sacramento Resident of: Downtown L.A. Age: 55 Education: B.A. in political science, University of California-Berkeley, 1961 Spouse: Gloria Didion