JB Matteson, traditionally an apartment investor, is expanding into mixed-use and plans to make some big Bay Area purchases this year.

JB Matteson prez John Bellack, here with his pet squirrel, just bought the 113-unit Rafael Town Center for $50M from a separate account managed by Stockbridge Real Estate Funds (below). His San Mateo company has one other Bay Area property under agreement, also with a mixed-use component, and expects to acquire one or more local properties before the year is up. John thinks there is strong demand in downtown as much as edge city environments, and competition remains steep; liquid properties are always highly sought after. Rafael Town Center's 41k SF of office space is 92% leased to Presidio Bank, among others, and counts Coldstone as a retail tenant in its 20k SF of retail space. (The question is: Will the property have enough nuts?)

His company's got some 3,000 units from San Diego to Seattle, all built since 2000. His focus is on building up a homogenous portfolio of Class-A investment grade apartment properties of 100 units or more. After college he was sucked into the NY investment banking scene with Morgan Stanley, then transferred into its real estate group and has been in the institutional investment biz now for 30 years. Last year JB scooped up $190M in West Coast apartments. Any chance of looking East? Nope: His company has a well-defined investment niche, he says, so that's where it'll stay. (Plus, California squirrels don't bite as much.)