written by
Emily Bane

Real estate veteran brings more than 45 years of experience to Intersection’s brokerage division, providing expertise from San Diego to Orange County to enhance the services of the expanding commercial real estate company.

SAN DIEGO — Intersection, the downtown San Diego commercial real estate (CRE) firm specializing in brokerage, investment management, and real estate services names Jay Arnett as its latest Senior Director. Arnett spent the last 45 years building his relationships and portfolio at CRE firms in San Diego and Orange counties. Beginning his career in the industrial and office sectors, he grew his practice as a generalist, completing transactions from Oceanside to Chula Vista.

Arnett joins Intersection’s rapidly growing brokerage division, specializing in commercial brokerage tenant representation and investment sales. His extensive market knowledge enables him to identify sound sales and leasing opportunities that are both value-enhancing and strategic investments. As an active member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR), Arnett is certified with the prestigious SIOR Designation representing the highest level of knowledge and ethics in the industry.

“Jay’s highly personalized service and informed strategic expertise will be invaluable as we continue to grow our brokerage division,” said Mark Hoekstra, Managing Director at Intersection. “As one of the most highly respected brokers in San Diego, his experience, leadership and integrity adds to the depth of the Intersection team.”

Over his 45-year career span, Arnett has completed in excess of 15 million square feet in office, industrial, and flex space transactions, resulting in over $1.5 billion in market value.

Arnett attributes his success to listening to clients and building tailored solutions that fit their needs. “The flexibility of a nimble, San Diego-owned company means that clients will benefit from local perspective and expertise that results in a more personalized experience overall,” said Arnett.

“I’m thrilled with the opportunity to have my brokerage career back in downtown at Intersection. There is immense opportunity at the company to expand both in San Diego, as well as into other submarkets,” Arnett said. “I’m looking forward to helping grow the brokerage division and assume a possible management position down the line.”

Emily Bane is the Marketing Coordinator at Intersection, providing strategic marketing expertise to support business objectives across company divisions. Contact Emily at 619-819-8725 or [email protected]

written by
Mark Hoekstra

The concept of a Family Office often seems elusive—it’s there, but hard to find or define. In recent years, the term “Family Office” has gained traction, especially when raising capital. You may know someone with connections to, or working directly with, large family offices. When I first encountered the term, I thought, “We need to connect with these investors. They’re the ideal clients for our highly personalized commercial real estate services!” So, we set out to build relationships with high-net-worth family offices interested in real estate investment. But soon, we realized the process wouldn’t be easy.

Our Journey to Connect with Family Offices

We began by researching “Family Office Investing” online. What we found were endless lists, strategies, and conferences promising access to family offices. However, purchasing a $4,000 list of names didn’t seem like the best value. So, we attended numerous conferences hoping to meet a few family offices. From personal experience, I can tell you that these offices—unless you have a direct referral or preexisting relationship—do not want to be solicited at such events. Connecting was tough, and solicitation wasn’t our approach. We were left wondering how to proceed.

Reassessing Our Approach

With limited success in forging new family office relationships, we paused to evaluate our own company. We were in the process of a rebranding project, which included interviews with our current clients to understand their expectations. This process led to a new name, brand look, and internal values that resonated with our true identity.

Our research revealed something crucial: the value we offered wasn’t just about the service, but about the alignment of values. We realized that family offices value relationships and shared principles more than specific services. Once we defined our core values—Wisdom, Equality, Determination, Ingenuity, Stewardship, and Collaboration—we set the stage for deeper, more meaningful connections with family offices. Today, many of our clients are family offices, and our journey with them has been both enlightening and rewarding.

Micro Family Offices: The Hidden Opportunity

Family offices come in various forms, and they need trusted partners for their investments. When reviewing our client list, we found that a few had portfolios worth millions—effectively operating as micro-family offices. A micro-family office is a smaller-scale operation, typically managing less than the minimum required to establish a full family office. Though these clients didn’t identify as family offices, we had built deep, trusting relationships with them over the years.

Recognizing this, we realized that understanding the bigger picture—legacy, wealth transfer, charity—was crucial for working with family offices. This insight helped us create a roadmap to better serve them, positioning us as a valuable partner in their investment strategy.

Larger Family Offices: Single vs. Multi-Family

Single-family offices manage the wealth of one family, while multi-family offices serve multiple families and often operate more like institutions. The distinction is important. Multi-family offices may provide more generic solutions, but their size and structure often align with institutional-level strategies. This is a critical insight for anyone aiming to build relationships with larger family offices.

Values as the Foundation for Successful Relationships

Our branding project’s focus on core values was integral to our growth. We defined internal values that drive our actions and external principles that support our clients. These values, along with our brand promise—”vision and guidance to help you get more out of commercial real estate”—have shaped our approach to family office relationships. Defining our values not only aligned our internal team but also positioned us as the right partner for family offices.

Building Trust with Micro Family Offices

As we worked with micro-family offices, we became more intuitive in our service. Though some of these clients still don’t recognize themselves as part of the micro-family office category, our established trust led to successful collaborations. The launch of our first fund deepened this relationship, allowing us to invest alongside them, boosting mutual trust. As word spread, we built new connections with other family offices.

Growing Our Family Office Relationships

Today, we proudly manage commercial real estate for six family offices, ranging in size from $30 million to hundreds of millions. Our success in building these relationships stems from aligning our values with those of the family offices we work with. By offering tailored services and new investment opportunities, we’ve forged lasting partnerships. What once seemed mystical is now a clear and fulfilling part of our business—family offices are not as elusive as they first appeared.

written by
Mark Hoekstra & Rocco Cortese

The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said: “The only thing constant is change”. At the Heritage Group, we have always embraced this philosophy. Recently, we determined that our identity was no longer in sync with the organization we have become. As such, we underwent an extensive rebranding process and the result of that process will be significant change.

New Name

We have changed the name of our company to Intersection. Intersection better reflects who we are as an organization and where we are going. It also reflects our unique competitive advantage: At Intersection, we are an extension of your real estate platform, with highly personalized service and informed strategic expertise. Through an exhaustive 10-month effort that included everything from industry and competitive analyses, internal/external assessments and process evaluations, Intersection was born.

Why rebranding your company? Why now?

About a year ago, our leadership team sat together to discuss how to continue to support evolving client expectations and what, ‘providing exceptional service to clients’, truly means. Our rebranding initiative started as plan to evaluate our organization and set goals for growth in the coming years. From there, it evolved into a larger-scale examination into our company, our industry and our competitors, all in an order to effectively support clients, and communicate our capabilities.

What will change?

How will I be affected? Outside of our new identity; name, logo, and colors, we have redefined our core values, our purpose, mission and vision. As the intersection brand continues to grow, we promise vision and guidance to help you get more out of commercial real estate.
What are the core values of Intersection?

Equality

We believe that everyone deserves to compete on a level playing field.

Collaboration

We inspire our fellow team members and work collectively in the pursuit of excellence.

Ingenuity

We are smart enough to know that the best solution isn’t always the most obvious one.

Wisdom

We are keepers of valuable industry knowledge and purveyors of practical insight.

Determination

We are passionately committed to overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of our goals.

Stewardship

We are steadfast in our commitment to protect the financial security of those we serve.

In closing, we’d like to thank our investors, clients, vendor partners and tenants for your continued business and support. Without all of you, the roads that led to Intersection would not exist. We look forward to working with you all, side-by-side, as we embrace our vision of a world in which commercial real estate enhances the human experience.

With Appreciation,


Mark Hoekstra
Managing Director

Rocco Cortese
Managing Director

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