Heritage Real Estate Advisors Founder Follows Big Footsteps
Mark Hoekstra, grandson of Ernest W. Hahn, creates a new Downtown company
Mark Hoekstra's father, Mike Hummel, is a real estate developer in Los Angeles. An uncle, Ron Hahn, and a cousin, Ernie Hahn II, also are in the real estate business. And his grandfather, the late Ernest W. Hahn, developed Horton Plaza and is credited with helping spark Downtown's renaissance.
So when it came time for Hoekstra to name his new Downtown real estate business, it was only natural for him to choose Heritage - as in Heritage Real Estate Advisors Inc. He and his staff moved into offices at 1241 State St. at the beginning of 2005.
"I looked at my last 18 years in the real estate business and decided that Heritage not only represents the past and the present, but is something that I hope my kids will someday take an interest in," says Hoekstra. "This whole concept had a lot to do with what my grandfather did."
Hoekstra, 41, a San Diego native, says the business goals of Heritage will mirror what he learned through the years with his family mentors. The company focuses on property management, leasing, construction management and advisory services to corporate and individual clients. "Predominantly we represent real estate owners," he says.
One of Heritage's clients is HootWink LLC, one of the largest franchisees of Hooters of America. The company just opened a Hooters restaurant in Oceanside, its fourth in the county, and Hoekstra is scouting several other areas - Escondido, San Marcos, Chula Vista and Bonita are a few - for additional restaurants. The company goal is to add three or four restaurants in each of four states - California, Iowa, Washington and Nebraska - in the next 12 months. Heritage also manages a Downtown office building, a research and development building in San Jose, a commercial center in Pacific Beach and other retail properties in Los Angeles.
Hoekstra's entire career has been in real estate. He graduated from the University of San Diego in 1986 and immediately went to work for Coldwell Banker (now CB Richard Ellis) in Los Angeles. He started Investment Development Service, now IDS Real Estate Group, in 1987 in downtown Los Angeles. Later, he opened IDS offices in Orange County and San Diego.
"I don't live Downtown but there's no other place I would like to work," says Hoekstra, who lives in Escondido with his wife, Glynna, an executive with Douglas E. Barnhart Inc., and daughters Amanda, 15, and Noelle, 13. "I absolutely love it. My grandfather had a significant impact on the changes here. He told me once in the early '80s that 65 percent of Downtown had been rezoned to residential development. I thought he was crazy." Hahn died in 1990.
Hoekstra looks at all the Downtown development projects and says the landscape changes every month. "It's an extremely vibrant, exciting place," he says. "Some of my clients ride the train into town. I walk over and pick them up."