Few public companies have closer ties to Washington than CB Richard Ellis Group, the California-based commercial real estate firm.
Company chairman Richard C. Blum is the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Directors include former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Mickey Kantor, former U.S. trade rep and commerce secretary under Bill Clinton.
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The company’s political heavyweights are not all Democrats. Bradford Freeman, California finance chair for Mitt Romney’s presidential run and a good friend of George W. Bush, is on the board of directors. So is Frederic Malek, campaign manager of George H.W. Bush’s 1992 presidential campaign and a trustee of the Bush Library Foundation.
Government is a major company client. The U.S. General Services Admininistration contracts with the company for federal office space. Other agencies dealing directly with the firm include the Department of State and FEMA.
Still, according to a May 16 filing with the SEC, government contracts comprise just 1% of the company business.
CB Richard Ellis traces its beginnings to a company founded in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. It grew into a regional firm in the 1940s, and continued to expand its reach in later decades. The company acquired Trammell Crow Company in 2006. It now manages $42.2 billion in assets and now operates in 55 countries.
Note: This story is part of an occasional series by Muckety, profiling the business activities of congressional spouses. Our first story in the series addressed the many board memberships of Susan Bayh, wife of Sen. Evan Bayh.
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