UPDATED: Jan. 26, 2022, 11:53 a.m.: The S in KBS is stepping away from day-to-day duties.
Chuck Schreiber, who founded the Newport Beach-based real estate firm along with Peter Bren and Don Koll in 1992, will move from chief executive into the role of chairman and president, the firm announced on Tuesday.
Marc DeLuca, a KBS executive who currently leads the firm’s Eastern regional team, has been promoted to CEO. DeLuca will also keep his role as head of Eastern operations.
A graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, DeLuca joined the firm in 2013, He arrived from New York-based real estate investment firm Clarion Partners, where he oversaw acquisitions in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S.
KBS also named Jeff Waldvogel as its first ever CFO. Waldvogel joined KBS as a controller in 2012 from accounting firm EY.
Since it was founded, the firm’s capital markets group has created seven non-traded real estate investment trusts and owns 56 properties across the country. KBS focuses on office properties, buying everything from Union Bank Plaza in Downtown Los Angeles to the 1.5 million-square-foot Accenture Tower in Chicago.
The firm has been trying to sell Union Bank Plaza for years — one bidder, RC Acquisitions, backed out of a $280 million deal in 2017. Last year, the firm put the office tower up for sale again, this time eyeing around $250 million for the 700,000-square-foot property.
Schreiber is the only founder left at the firm: Koll died in 2011 and Peter Bren, who served as president of the firm, passed away in 2019.
As president and chairman, Schreiber will “focus on the strategic vision and future of KBS.”
The company’s new CEO DeLuca will oversee all KBS operations, acquisitions and investments.