You can't drive far in Tucson without seeing a "Bourn Partners" sign in front of a building for lease or on a piece of ground for sale.
Various Bourn companies have become something of a juggernaut in local commercial real estate, and have helped bring new retailers to town like Borders Books & Music, Outback Steakhouse and Sprouts Farmers Market.
Don Bourn is founding partner of the company, which is growing rapidly as development projects multiply.
Bourn recently named Rick Myers to the post of chief operating officer for the firm to help bring it organizational experience.
Myers, a civic leader and former IBM executive who helped craft the 20-year regional transportation plan approved by voters in May, said he will focus on the organization of the company while Bourn continues to focus on projects and getting results for investors.
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Bourn arrived in Tucson 20 years ago this month to take a job with Trammel Crow Co. and get leases signed for the Crossroads Festival center at East Grant and North Swan roads. When Trammel Crow left the Tucson market in 1990, Bourn stayed, set up Bourn Properties with a computer in his bedroom, and went to work.
Since then, Bourn and his companies have changed the face of Tucson, from the refurbished Foothills Mall on the Northwest Side to planning a five-story condominium/retail project, The Post, Downtown.
Bourn sat down Thursday to talk about his company and its projects.
Q: Why did you approach Rick Myers about joining the company as its first chief operating officer?
A: He is able to take divergent interests and complicated issues and boil them down so everybody can understand them. He is able to get people to work toward common goals. He has a lot of vision and helps make sure people are doing what they need to be doing. I am more focused on big-picture items.
Q: How big is this organization?
A: Under the new Bourn Companies LLC umbrella we have roughly 80 people. We have added about 25 people just this year. We've expanded quite a bit because of the large number of projects. We have a commercial real estate brokerage (Bourn Partners), a development company (Bourn Development) and we do property management (as Bourn Property Management).
Q: You have a portfolio of Tucson office and retail properties on the market. How is that going?
A: We expect to have sales contracts within the next few weeks for nearly all those properties totaling 1.5 million square feet. It will be a great opportunity to reward our investors. We expect the returns on many of our projects to exceed 20 percent annually.
Q: How much money have you handled for your investors?
A: It approaches $70 million in last two or three years. We have about 200 investors, and most them are local people. Individual investments range from $50,000 to $20 million.
Q: What was your first big success?
A: Foothills Mall was our first opportunity for a major project.
Our group had a vision for how it could work. We thought we could find some value-oriented retailers.
Q: What did you learn from that project?
A: Interestingly, I think there are some very large similarities in the Foothills Mall and what we're trying to do Downtown. People looked at Foothills and thought it should be torn down because it couldn't work.
One thing we had there was critical mass, a large enough palette to work with to create something unique.
Downtown has fragmented ownership, but the general idea is the same. You create a vision and communicate it to various groups.
Q: In addition to The Post project, what role will your company play Downtown?
A: We bought La Placita Downtown and continue to mull over the colors, but we've listened to the response and we looked at some beige colors and I always felt the project should maintain a bright, vibrant facade. We will have to paint it anyway, but people will be happy when we're done.
It's a large, strategically located project that will have a great impact Downtown.
Q: Are there any other rehab projects in the works?
A: The 5151 project (office tower at 5151 E. Broadway) is an office building from the 1970s. My feeling is this is a '70s building that needs a contemporary retro remodeling consistent with its original architecture. We will take that important Broadway frontage and put in restaurants and retail and make this a vibrant area — a great place to office and spruce up the street level.
Name: Don Bourn
Position: Founding partner
Company: Bourn Partners LLC
Age: 44
Family: wife Kim, expecting a child soon