Avison Young acquires Houston-based Mason Partners

Purchase strengthens Avison Young's business-line coverage in Texas;
Todd Mason and Jeff Lindenberger join as Principals

TORONTO, Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ - Mark E. Rose, Chair and CEO of Avison Young, Canada's largest independently-owned commercial real estate services company, announced today that it has acquired the assets of Mason Partners, a Houston-based commercial real estate brokerage company.

The acquisition will further expand Avison Young's market and business-line coverage in Texas. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Mason Partners offers a complete range of services, including tenant representation, landlord representation and investment sales, to real estate users, owners and investors on a local, regional and national basis. The firm provides services related to all property sector types, while specializing in land and corporate transactions.

Past client assignments have involved such notable companies as Victory Packaging, Hines, The Lionstone Group, Centerpoint Energy, The Houston Metroplolitan Transit Authority, AIG, BP Amoco, Weatherford International, and Service Corporation International. The Houston Business Journal awarded  Mason Partners "Land Transaction of the Year" in 2010 for negotiating the sale of 3009 Post Oak Boulevard from Hines REIT to Skanska.

Effective immediately, Todd Mason (co-founder and partner of Mason Partners) and Jeff Lindenberger (co-founder and managing partner) join Avison Young as Principals. Tommy LeBlanc also joins as a broker and Andrea Gardner as a client services coordinator.

"Houston is the energy capital of the world and a critical growth market for Avison Young. The acquisition of Mason Partners allows us to partner with some of the top brokers in Houston, and immediately creates a strong presence for Avison Young in Houston's robust land market," comments Rose.

He continues: "Todd and Jeff are consummate real estate professionals, and while they have diverse disciplines, they are truly focused on providing their clients with solutions to complex issues. Our respective firms are a great cultural fit for each other, and we are very excited that Todd, Jeff, Tommy and Andrea have chosen to come on board."

Over the past four years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 43 offices and from 300 to more than 1,100 real estate professionals across Canada and the U.S.

Earl Webb, Avison Young's President, U.S. Operations, states: "We are pleased to have Todd and Jeff joining us as Principals. Todd is a long-time veteran of the Houston real estate community and he and Jeff are widely respected professionals. Together with Tommy LeBlanc, they bring valuable knowledge of Houston's Inner Loop land market, but they also extend their reach to many corporate clients with facilities throughout North America. This team will be a tremendous addition to our Houston office and to our company."

Avison Young opened its Houston office in June 2010 followed by a Dallas office in July 2011.

Effective immediately, Mason, Lindenberger and team join Avison Young's existing office in Houston at Williams Tower, 2800 Post Oak Boulevard, Suite 1950.

Rand Stephens, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company's Houston office, says: "Many of us in the Houston office have close working relationships with Todd Mason, Jeff Lindenberger and Tommy LeBlanc. They are top-notch professionals and bring a wealth of experience and talent to Avison Young. We are thrilled that this team is joining the Avison Young family."

"Taking care of our clients is first and foremost, and we believe the client-service model at Avison Young is second to none," notes Mason on behalf of his team. "In addition, our skill sets are very accretive and complementary to those of the Houston team and Avison Young as a whole. Of course, culturally, we feel right at home with the Avison Young people, and that was very important to us as well."

Founded in 1978, Avison Young is Canada's largest independently-owned commercial real estate services company. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Avison Young is also the largest Canadian-owned, principal-managed commercial real estate brokerage firm in North America. Comprising more than 1,100 real estate professionals in 43 offices across Canada and the U.S., the full-service commercial real estate company provides value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial and multi-residential properties.

Biographies

Todd Mason
Todd Mason brings to Avison Young more than 25 years of real estate experience. He has an extensive background in land and investment sales as well as corporate real estate, providing both brokerage and consulting services for institutional and corporate clients. He has handled more than $1.5 billion in transactions for these accounts. Notable clients have included Hines, AIG, BP Amoco, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), PennzEnergy, Weatherford International, Service Corporation International (SCI) and Victory Packaging, as well as numerous individual investors.

Prior to forming Mason Partners in 2010, Mason was a shareholder of McDade, Smith, Gould, Johnston, Mason + Company where he served as CEO for eight years. Before then, he served as Senior Director - Brokerage Services Group with Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) of Texas (1990-2002) and, prior to that, spent two years as an associate at the Horne Company.

During Mason's tenure at C&W, he won C&W's coveted National Service Excellence award twice. In 1997, he was named Commercial Broker of the Year by the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR). He also received the Commercial Professional of the Year for 1998 from the Association of Commercial Real Estate Professionals (ACRP), the 1998 Industrial Broker of the Year from the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), the 1999 Industrial Co-broker of the Year from NAIOP, and won CCIM's 2002 Real Estate Forecast competition. In 2004, METRO contracted with Mason to serve as its Vice-President of Real Estate and Joint Development, and he successfully managed the largest right-of-way acquisition plan in METRO's history as well as structuring its first public-private partnerships for development around park-and-rides and train stations.

Mason is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Counselors of Real Estate. He has previously held such titles as President of the Exchange Club of Houston, President of the Stella Link Redevelopment Association, and Chairman of the Board for the HAR. He has also served as Chairman of the ACRP, the Downtown Historic District, and the Archdiocese Development Board. Mason has served as a board member of the Houston Architectural Foundation, Braes Bayou Little League, Boulevard Oaks Civic Association and Braeswood Place Homeowners Association, and has been manager of numerous West University Little League teams. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in petroleum geology.

Jeff Lindenberger
Jeff Lindenberger brings 10 years of commercial real estate experience to Avison Young. Prior to co-founding Mason Partners in 2010, he was a broker with McDade, Smith, Gould, Johnston, Mason + Company (2004-2011) where he teamed with Todd Mason and was involved in more than $350 million in transactions. Lindenberger has worked with such notable clients as Key Energy, Centerpoint Energy, The Lionstone Group, Hines, Victory Packaging, Teleflex, Tyson Foods, and The Metropolitan Transit Authority. He works closely with both corporate and institutional clients as well as individual investors. He was recognized as a "Heavy Hitter" by the Houston Business Journal in 2007 and 2009, and earned his Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) designation in 2009.

Lindenberger is a member of the HAR, the Texas Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. He currently serves on the board of the Houston chapter of SIOR, the real estate chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association, and Woodbridge Municipal Water District. Lindenberger is also active with in the Society of Texas A&M Real Estate Professionals. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance and a Master of Land Economics and Real Estate degree.

For further information/comment/photos:

• Sherry Quan, National Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young: (604) 647-5098; cell: (604) 726-0959
• Mark Rose, Chair and CEO, Avison Young: (416) 673-4028
• Earl Webb, President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: (312) 957-7610
• Rand Stephens, Principal and Managing Director, Houston, Avison Young: (713) 993-7810
• Todd Mason, Principal, Avison Young: (713) 993-7179
• Jeff Lindenberger, Principal, Avison Young: (713) 993-7616

www.avisonyoung.com

Avison Young is a winner of Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies program for 2011, sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, National Post and Queen's School of Business

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SOURCE Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (BC)

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