Last week, Building Blocks brought you the news that the Western Group/Oncor International was shutting its doors, but promised more details this week on its employees' future. So, Building Blocks is making good on its promises.

Approximately 10 former Western Groupers – evidently some things are still up in the air – are now the newest additions to Noble Gibbons/CB Richard Ellis, making it possibly the biggest real estate firm in town, with an in-house staff of 50.

"We're always looking for opportunities in the market," said Noble Gibbons Managing Director Bill Lane. "This actual expansion wasn't planned even two months ago, but when we saw there was an opportunity and a good group of people searching for a home, we reacted very quickly and took advantage of that opportunity."

Former Western Group Director Darrell Stanaford becomes head of Noble Gibbons' industrial real estate group, though Stanaford said he will spend maybe half his time on the industrial market.

"To the extent that there is a market, that is what I am going to do," he said. "I'm squeezing every last dollar out of the industrial turnip. That said, there is some money to be made there, and if I can find a way to be productive spending all of my time on the industrial market, that's what I'll do."

Assuming the industrial market doesn't explode – and Stanaford doesn't think it will, for a variety of reasons – he'll spend the rest of his time working office deals and supervising long-time colleague Larissa Pankratova, who will run Noble Gibbons' brand new property management division. At the Western Group, Pankratova ran one of the most successful property management groups in Moscow, and while firms like Jones Lang LaSalle have dipped their toe in that market and then left, Noble Gibbons plans to give it the old college try.

"We always knew that property management was an area we wanted to grow into," Lane said, adding that at the Western Group, Pankratova and her team displayed "unmatched ability."

In addition to Stanaford and Pankratova, two of the Western Group's star brokers are also joining Noble Gibbons: Yury Yudakov, on offices, and Olga Todarenko, on residential, Stanaford said.

The absorption makes a strong firm even stronger. In the second quarter of the year, Noble Gibbons led the pack, signing 11 deals covering some 10,000 sq. meters of space, Lane said. The deals ranged from small lettings in the Regus center to a 3,000-sq. meter contract with Renaissance Insurance.

"We happened to come out in front, but some of our colleagues also had good quarters, which is good to see," he said. "It looks like it will continue."

Homes on the range ...

Hines expects to start delivering five-bedroom homes at Pokrovsky Hills in December, according to Hines Vice President Bill Knopick.

Work is already well under way at the site, just off Leningradskoe Shosse. A model unit should be ready for tours in October, Knopick said, and then the homes will be delivered in batches of 15 per month from December 2000 to February 2001, completing Phase II of the project.

Most of the new homes will be four- and five-bedroom models – the biggest yet offered at Pokrovsky – and even the three-bedroom homes will be bigger than those already built, in response to concerns that the space was too small for the money.

And the money certainly isn't small; homes at Pokrovsky Hills start at $6,500 a month. Still, people are already lining up, Knopick said. Among the biggest attractions to the site is the on-time completion – despite earlier predictions – of the Anglo-American School, adjacent to Pokrovsky. The school has capacity for 1,200 pupils, from kindergarten through high school.

Meanwhile, plans for Phase III are nearly completed.

(E-mail Building Blocks at sam@russiajournal.com)