CB Richard Ellis/Whittier Partners in Boston has been named to manage a number of local properties in recent weeks, including this 10-building complex in the Hub’s Fort Point Channel area occupied by Thomson Financial Corp.

When it comes to property management, CB Richard Ellis/Whittier Partners appears to be managing quite well these days.

Already Boston’s largest commercial real estate firm for that service line, its Property Management Division seems unlikely to be overtaken for the top spot anytime soon, having already added nearly 3.5 million square feet to its portfolio in 2004 and division chief Mark Tassinari anticipating continued growth as the year progresses. Amazingly, the group is still not on a record pace, having added 8 million square feet in 2000, but Tassinari said he is nonetheless enthused by the latest campaign, including CBRE/Whittier recently being hired to manage a 500,000-square-foot shopping center in Cranston, R.I.

“We’re thrilled,” Tassinari said. “The last month has been something special.” In recent weeks, for example, Tassinari’s team has been named to manage two office buildings in Wakefield totaling nearly 390,000 square feet, an 80,000-square-foot office building at 1400 Hancock St. in Quincy and a 10-building complex in Boston’s Fort Point Channel area occupied by Thomson Financial Corp.

Thus far, CBRE/Whittier has landed 21 separate contracts in 2004, with the assets including office, retail, flex and industrial product. The activity brings the group’s management portfolio to 21 million square feet, more than double the 10 million square feet that CBRE/Whittier had under management when Tassinari arrived via a company merger in 1997.

The surge has not been happenstance, according to Tassinari.

“Over the past five or six years, we have made a concerted effort to go after new business,” he said, estimating that the company has expanded its portfolio annually from between 3 million square feet and 8 million square feet. The competition has been fierce, Tassinari acknowledged, with CBRE/Whittier vying against such national companies as Trammell Crow Co. and Cushman & Wakefield, while Spaulding & Slye Colliers and Meredith & Grew head up the list of homegrown concerns pursuing the property management market.

Successful Approach

Mostly focused on the office market, CBRE/Whittier is making a run at the retail sector as well, Tassinari said. The Garden City Center in Cranston, which Tassinari’s group will begin managing next week, brings the retail portfolio up from about 1 million square feet to 1.5 million square feet, while the firm earlier this month also was selected to manage 350 Washington St. in Boston’s Downtown Crossing district. Acquired by Real Estate Capital Partners for $110 million, 350 Washington St. features 150,000 square feet of multi-level retail space, and will provide CBRE/Whittier a chance to handle one of the city’s most visible shopping centers.

Other retail properties added to the company’s list this year is a 100,000-square-foot center in Warwick, R.I., two malls in Connecticut totaling 485,000 square feet and the Salt Pond Shopping Center in Narragansett, R.I. Both Connecticut assets and the Garden City Center are owned by Boston-based TA Associates Realty.

Repeat customers have been a cornerstone of CBRE/Whittier’s property management growth, said Tassinari, with the firm also taking over 1414 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge on behalf of an existing client, new owner Wells Real Estate Funds. Also, GI Partners was satisfied enough with the firm’s previous work to hire CBRE/Whittier to manage 100 Technology Drive in Stoughton when GI acquired that building earlier this year.

To Tassinari, the client loyalty is a reflection of his division’s employees, with CBRE/Whittier’s management team now up to about 150 professionals. The firm has taken great care to hire and retain staff with strong knowledge of building systems and management techniques, said Tassinari, a commitment he maintains is now paying off in the currency of new properties to oversee.

“If you have good people who understand the process and know how to create value in a property, that is what the client is looking for,” he said. “So far, [the approach] has been panning out quite well, and we hope to be able to build on that.”

Having matured during the past decade, property management has become a highly complex field, with a team often handling virtually every aspect of a building’s operation, both physical and fiscal. In the past, companies were often awarded management contracts for having brokered the sale of a building, but Tassinari said the trend is increasingly to look at those as separate issues. CBRE/Whittier won the 21 contracts awarded so far in 2004 via a number of different processes, said Tassinari, some handed outright and others coming after surviving a bidding competition. Whatever it took, Tassinari said he is encouraged by the breadth of the growth and the addresses now in the company’s pouch. “They are all significant assignments,” he said.

Industrial buildings landing on CBRE/Whittier’s plate this year include the Pinehurst Business Park and 43 Manning Road in Billerica and 734 Forest St. in Marlborough. Other office properties include 100 Old River Road in Andover, 245 Winter St. and University Office Park, both in Waltham, and One Brattle Square in Cambridge, as well as 50 Jordan St. in East Providence, R.I., an 80,000-square-foot asset owned by Cendant Mortgage Co.