Purchase strengthens Avison Young’s business-line coverage in Texas;
Todd Mason and Jeff Lindenberger join as Principals

TORONTO, Jan. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Mark E. Rose, Chair and CEO of Avison Young, Canada’s largest independently-owned commercial real estate services
company, announced today that it has acquired the assets of Mason Partners, a Houston-based commercial real estate brokerage company.

The acquisition will further expand Avison Young’s market and
business-line coverage in Texas. Terms of the acquisition were not
disclosed.

Mason Partners offers a complete range of services, including tenant
representation, landlord representation and investment sales, to real
estate users, owners and investors on a local, regional and national
basis. The firm provides services related to all property sector types,
while specializing in land and corporate transactions.

Past client assignments have involved such notable companies as Victory
Packaging, Hines, The Lionstone Group, Centerpoint Energy, The Houston
Metroplolitan Transit Authority, AIG, BP Amoco, Weatherford
International, and Service Corporation International. The Houston Business Journal awarded Mason Partners “Land Transaction of the Year” in 2010 for
negotiating the sale of 3009 Post Oak Boulevard from Hines REIT to
Skanska.

Effective immediately, Todd Mason (co-founder and partner of Mason Partners) and Jeff Lindenberger (co-founder and managing partner) join Avison Young as Principals. Tommy LeBlanc also joins as a broker and Andrea Gardner as a client services coordinator.

“Houston is the energy capital of the world and a critical growth market
for Avison Young. The acquisition of Mason Partners allows us to
partner with some of the top brokers in Houston, and immediately
creates a strong presence for Avison Young in Houston’s robust land
market,” comments Rose.

He continues: “Todd and Jeff are consummate real estate professionals,
and while they have diverse disciplines, they are truly focused on
providing their clients with solutions to complex issues. Our
respective firms are a great cultural fit for each other, and we are
very excited that Todd, Jeff, Tommy and Andrea have chosen to come on
board.”

Over the past four years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 43 offices
and from 300 to more than 1,100 real estate professionals across Canada
and the U.S.

Earl Webb, Avison Young’s President, U.S. Operations, states: “We are pleased to
have Todd and Jeff joining us as Principals. Todd is a long-time
veteran of the Houston real estate community and he and Jeff are widely
respected professionals. Together with Tommy LeBlanc, they bring
valuable knowledge of Houston’s Inner Loop land market, but they also
extend their reach to many corporate clients with facilities throughout
North America. This team will be a tremendous addition to our Houston
office and to our company.”

Avison Young opened its Houston office in June 2010 followed by a Dallas
office in July 2011.

Effective immediately, Mason, Lindenberger and team join Avison Young’s
existing office in Houston at Williams Tower, 2800 Post Oak Boulevard,
Suite 1950.

Rand Stephens, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company’s Houston
office, says: “Many of us in the Houston office have close working
relationships with Todd Mason, Jeff Lindenberger and Tommy
LeBlanc. They are top-notch professionals and bring a wealth of
experience and talent to Avison Young. We are thrilled that this team
is joining the Avison Young family.”

“Taking care of our clients is first and foremost, and we believe the
client-service model at Avison Young is second to none,” notes Mason on
behalf of his team. “In addition, our skill sets are very accretive and
complementary to those of the Houston team and Avison Young as a whole.
Of course, culturally, we feel right at home with the Avison Young
people, and that was very important to us as well.”

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 43
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.

Biographies

Todd Mason
Todd Mason brings to Avison Young more than 25 years of real estate
experience. He has an extensive background in land and investment sales
as well as corporate real estate, providing both brokerage and
consulting services for institutional and corporate clients. He has
handled more than $1.5 billion in transactions for these accounts.
Notable clients have included Hines, AIG, BP Amoco, Metropolitan
Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO), PennzEnergy, Weatherford
International, Service Corporation International (SCI) and Victory
Packaging, as well as numerous individual investors.

Prior to forming Mason Partners in 2010, Mason was a shareholder of
McDade, Smith, Gould, Johnston, Mason + Company where he served as CEO
for eight years. Before then, he served as Senior Director – Brokerage
Services Group with Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) of Texas (1990-2002) and,
prior to that, spent two years as an associate at the Horne Company.

During Mason’s tenure at C&W, he won C&W’s coveted National Service
Excellence award twice. In 1997, he was named Commercial Broker of the
Year by the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR). He also received the
Commercial Professional of the Year for 1998 from the Association of
Commercial Real Estate Professionals (ACRP), the 1998 Industrial Broker
of the Year from the National Association of Industrial and Office
Properties (NAIOP), the 1999 Industrial Co-broker of the Year from
NAIOP, and won CCIM’s 2002 Real Estate Forecast competition. In 2004,
METRO contracted with Mason to serve as its Vice-President of Real
Estate and Joint Development, and he successfully managed the largest
right-of-way acquisition plan in METRO’s history as well as structuring
its first public-private partnerships for development around
park-and-rides and train stations.

Mason is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Counselors of Real Estate.
He has previously held such titles as President of the Exchange Club of
Houston, President of the Stella Link Redevelopment Association, and
Chairman of the Board for the HAR. He has also served as Chairman of
the ACRP, the Downtown Historic District, and the Archdiocese
Development Board. Mason has served as a board member of the Houston
Architectural Foundation, Braes Bayou Little League, Boulevard Oaks
Civic Association and Braeswood Place Homeowners Association, and has
been manager of numerous West University Little League teams. He is a
graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts
in petroleum geology.

Jeff Lindenberger
Jeff Lindenberger brings 10 years of commercial real estate experience
to Avison Young. Prior to co-founding Mason Partners in 2010, he was a
broker with McDade, Smith, Gould, Johnston, Mason + Company (2004-2011)
where he teamed with Todd Mason and was involved in more than $350
million in transactions. Lindenberger has worked with such notable
clients as Key Energy, Centerpoint Energy, The Lionstone Group, Hines,
Victory Packaging, Teleflex, Tyson Foods, and The Metropolitan Transit
Authority. He works closely with both corporate and institutional
clients as well as individual investors. He was recognized as a “Heavy
Hitter” by the Houston Business Journal in 2007 and 2009, and earned his Society of Industrial and Office
Realtors (SIOR) designation in 2009.

Lindenberger is a member of the HAR, the Texas Association of Realtors
and the National Association of Realtors. He currently serves on the
board of the Houston chapter of SIOR, the real estate chapter of the
Coastal Conservation Association, and Woodbridge Municipal Water
District. Lindenberger is also active with in the Society of Texas A&M
Real Estate Professionals. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University
with a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance and a Master of
Land Economics and Real Estate degree.

•	Editors/Reporters: please click on links to view and download photos of Todd Mason and Jeff Lindenberger http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/Todd_Mason.jpeg http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/Jeff_Lindenberger.jpeg

For further information/comment/photos:

• Sherry Quan, National Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young: (604) 647-5098; cell: (604) 726-0959
• Mark Rose, Chair and CEO, Avison Young: (416) 673-4028
• Earl Webb, President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: (312) 957-7610
• Rand Stephens, Principal and Managing Director, Houston, Avison Young: (713) 993-7810
• Todd Mason, Principal, Avison Young: (713) 993-7179
• Jeff Lindenberger, Principal, Avison Young: (713) 993-7616

www.avisonyoung.com

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

Follow Avison Young on Twitter:

For industry news, press releases and market reports: www.twitter.com/avisonyoung
For Avison Young listings and deals: www.twitter.com/AYListingsDeals

Follow Avison Young Bloggers: http://blog.avisonyoung.com

SOURCE Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (BC)