Exit Planning Services San Jose

Real estate partners take charge, thrive

SAN RAMON -- It's never too late to change course and start something new.

That's certainly true of John Carpenter and John Robbins, who 13 years ago founded the commercial real estate firm Carpenter/Robbins Commercial Real Estate.

Now both in their 60s, what began as a plan to provide tenant representation services to only local business and government entities in the Tri-Valley has turned into representation in 20 states and 136 cities.

"It all changed one day literally when I was driving down the freeway on my two-hour commute to San Jose and my wife called me and said, 'When are you going to quit talking about starting your own company and do it?' " Robbins, 68, recalled. "And I said, 'You're right, I need to do that right now.'"

And that's what he did.

After working solo for four years, Robbins wanted to bring on another real estate veteran and reached out to Carpenter, with whom he'd previously done consulting work. It took Carpenter about a week to decide he wanted to make the partnership happen.

Collectively the two have more than 65 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry. Carpenter was regional president and national director of Grubb & Ellis Commercial Real Estate Services, and Robbins was a director and branch manager of Cushman and Wakefield in San Jose.

In 2010 Carpenter/Robbins brought in $3.7 million in revenues, and in 2011 they're projecting $4.1 million.

Not only did they want to control their own destiny, but they wanted to create a commercial real estate firm distinct from their competitors. They did this by being a tenant-only firm.

"Real estate is a listing business, and the thing about it is the tenants are either naive or uninformed about the brokers they encounter representing the buildings, because those brokers don't represent them at all," Robbins said.

Carpenter and Robbins feel their success comes from the ability to look at contracts and understand how to negotiate them in the best interest of the tenants, especially because they had long sat on the other side of the table in previous commercial real estate stints.

For example, they might find an insurance policy that is unnecessarily high and save the tenant several thousands of dollars. Or they might structure expansion rights if the business takes off.

"We know where are all the bodies are buried in the contracts and how to help the tenants avoid it," Carpenter, 64, said.

AmeriCorps Bridging Borders: Making a Difference in San Jose

The AmeriCorps Bridging Borders Program is a collaborative effort between San José State University (SJSU), community organizations, and local public schools, engaging more than 40 SJSU students and community members in direct service to address the unmet needs of low-income, high-risk immigrant families in Santa Clara County (Center for Community Learning & Leadership, 2009).

Bridging Borders was founded in 2002 by Debra David, the current Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies at SJSU. The program is funded by CaliforniaVolunteers, the office responsible for managing state AmeriCorps programs (CaliforniaVolunteers, 2009). CaliforniaVolunteers awards three-year grants to its education programs, including Bridging Borders.

The mission of the AmeriCorps Bridging Borders Project is to support the educational needs of low-income, K-8 English-Language Learners (ELLs) who function at “far-below-basic” levels through literacy tutoring (including the areas of fluency, reading comprehension, phonemic awareness and phonics, decoding, writing, word recognition, and word conventions) that supplements regular classroom instruction. More than 800 students receive at least 40 hours of 1 on 1 or small-group tutoring each program year.

Project employees serve as AmeriCorps members in one of two capacities: as tutors, AmeriCorps members provide direct service in literacy tutoring at high-risk schools or after-school programs; as Site Leaders, AmeriCorps members also provide direct literacy tutoring, and are collectively responsible for recruiting, training, and managing more than 300 service-learning students from SJSU and 500 or more community volunteers to assist with academic tutoring or homework, health and parent education, and extracurricular activities at community-based placement sites for a total of 1,500 hours. Specific tasks and responsibilities may differ according to placement site. AmeriCorps members are not to perform service in the absence of a site supervisor, teacher, or other staff member.

Once AmeriCorps members are hired and placed at a site, they are required to attend a two-day orientation (2 hours and 8 hours, respectively) to review the program handbook of policies and procedures, performance measurements, and such topics as best practices for working with youth, communication, and time management.

Members are also required to attend bi-weekly seminars that address relevant or timely topics and issues, including mandatory reporting, civic engagement, and project planning.

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