United Technologies Corporation selects Grubb & Ellis.

Grubb & Ellis Company announced that Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp. has selected the Grubb & Ellis/Knight Frank Global Services team to provide a wide range of real estate services to the approximately 1,500 locations controlled by United Technologies in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR).

The exclusive, three-year contract calls for such services as portfolio audit and strategic planning, lease administration, transaction management, acquisition and disposition for an EMEAR portfolio approaching 20 million SF. It is one of the largest exclusive real estate service contracts ever awarded in the EMEAR.

According to Ron Zappile, president of Farmington, CT-based United Technologies Realty, the entity responsible for real estate management and oversight for United Technologies Corporation, "In the past we handled our real estate either on a region-by-region or country-by-country basis, as do most other major international businesses making and selling varied products throughout the world. Advances in technology allowed us to consider centralizing the management of our real estate portfolio. The capability platform of services provided by the Grubb & Ellis/Knight Frank alliance has given us the action arm to recommend strategies and to execute our policy decisions."

Craig Morris, president of Grubb & Ellis' Corporate Services Group, noted that "Our approach to global real estate solutions is completely integrated with our partner, Knight Frank, and our alliance offers our clients more than 200 offices in 30 countries.

We are particularly strong throughout the EMEAR nations. We understand through long and intimate experience that each country has very different ways to do business and to handle real estate. It is also clear that a successful real estate program for United Technologies requires global centralization and strategy. We've assigned a team of professionals to work alongside our client on a full time basis to assist in the strategic and implementation aspects of the United Technologies' international portfolio. We believe Ron Zappile's group is among the worldwide leaders in corporate real estate strategy."

Grubb & Ellis has been working closely with United Technologies for several years. Earlier this year, it completed the sale of two South Korean office/industrial properties totaling 449,330 SF with results that exceeded United Technologies' expectations. The Grubb & Ellis alliance responded to a Request for Proposal from United Technologies for the work in EMEAR, and won that assignment in a head-to-head contest with other leaders in this service field.

"While we were dealing with the specifics of their overall request, we recommended individual steps United Technologies might take in Austria, Germany, Ireland and Spain -- and we were given those specific assignments to accomplish," said Barry Barovick, president of Grubb & Ellis. "Our Global Service activity is presently underway for 27 separate United Technologies. projects in 11 different countries within EMEAR. We are dedicated to making this new process work for United Technologies and we are confident that the results will include improved control and decision-making, greater cost savings and more flexible and rapid action on behalf of the United Technologies Realty team.

"We won this assignment because of the combination of strong relationships, unique talents and great teamwork between Knight Frank and Grubb & Ellis," noted Barovick. The Global Services team included: from Grubb & Ellis, Craig Morris, president of Corporate Services Group: Gail Crowder, senior v.p.; Steve Smith, managing director of real property administration; Ray O'Keefe, executive v.p. and director, international operations; David Yi, VP; Cesar Ruiz, senior v.p. and from Knight Frank, Julian Pinner, partner -- head of corporate real estate services; Steve Mallen, partner, Global Consulting and Richard Sexton, partner.