Industry leader Matthew Bear joins Avison Young in Las Vegas

Retail investment sales and leasing specialist joins as Principal

LAS VEGAS, Nov. 20, 2012 /CNW/ - Joseph Kupiec, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company's Las Vegas office, announced today that commercial real estate broker Matthew Bear has joined Avison Young's brokerage operations in Las Vegas.

Effective immediately, Bear joins Avison Young as a Principal. He will focus on capital markets, retail, and advisory services transactions in Las Vegas and throughout the expanding Avison Young platform.

"We are very pleased to have Matt Bear join our growing operation in Las Vegas. Matt is one of the most respected professionals and industry leaders in the market," comments Kupiec. "His comprehensive commercial real estate experience, in-depth industry knowledge and longstanding client relationships are perfectly aligned with our commitment to provide best-in-class services to our valued clients. The addition of Matt further demonstrates Avison Young's commitment to the Las Vegas market, and is another important step in the execution of our company's aggressive growth plan."

Bear brings to Avison Young 23 years of commercial real estate experience related to properties in Nevada, California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Idaho. His diverse experience includes vision and strategic/operational planning; joint-venture fund investing and relations; site selection and acquisition; ground-up development; portfolio management and leasing; acquisitions and dispositions; and re-engineering operations and process improvement.

From 2002 to 2010, Bear served as chief investment officer and chief operations officer with Venture Development Group, a Las Vegas-based company that he co-founded. Leading a team of 18 development, finance, property management and legal management professionals, he executed investment and development strategies while overseeing all aspects of the company's acquisitions, dispositions and leasing.

"The move to Avison Young is a great opportunity to be a part of an emerging and innovative company, while at the same time participating in the Las Vegas recovery," says Bear. "I am excited to be continuing my career with the fastest-growing real estate firm in North America, and working with my new colleagues in the U.S. and Canada. Avison Young's Principal-led, client-service model is extremely appealing and will enhance my ability to service my new and existing clients."

Bear holds a communications degree from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and has completed a number of real estate-related courses as part of his professional training. He is a Senior Certified Leasing Specialist (SCLS) and a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, which he joined in 1992. In 2003, Bear was named a winner of the Las Vegas Sun's In Business Las Vegas 40 Under 40 award.

Avison Young opened its first Nevada office in November 2011 in Las Vegas, with industry veteran Joseph Kupiec joining as a Principal to help launch the company's brokerage business in Nevada. The company opened in Reno in March 2012 with John Pinjuv joining as Managing Director. In August 2012, the company acquired Las Vegas-based commercial property management firm Landry & Associates, Inc., adding 2.6 million square feet (msf) to Avison Young's approximately 50 msf of retail, industrial and office properties already under management in Canada and the U.S.

Today's announcement comes on the heels of Avison Young opening a newly-formed office in Irvine, California yesterday.

Over the past three and a half years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 42 offices and from 300 to more than 1,100 real estate professionals across Canada and the U.S.

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 42 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.

• Editors/Reporters: please click on link to view and download photo of Matthew Bear
  http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/Matt_Bear.jpg

For further information/comment/photos:

• Sherry Quan, National Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young:
  [phone]; cell: [phone]
• Joseph Kupiec, Principal and Managing Director, Las Vegas, Avison Young: [phone]
• Matt Bear, Principal, Avison Young: [phone]
• Earl Webb, President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: [phone]
• Mark Rose, Chair and CEO, Avison Young: [phone]

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.

www.avisonyoung.com

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SOURCE: Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (BC)

Media Relations:
Sherry Quan
[phone] or [phone] cell
email: [email protected]