Valley Oak Partners just picked up a 49k SF industrial property at 34325 Ardenwood in Fremont. The seller, Boston-based Cabot Properties, was repped by Lee & Associates' Victor DeBoer, who declined to discuss the sale price with us. But Victor did tell us a few months back that industrial rents have gone from "idle to full steam ahead" in the last 18 months. Valley Oak was repped by Mark Pleis of Lee & Associates' Pleasanton office. Meanwhile, the Oakland office has added a new broker, Zack Barnes, bringing the count to 18. The office had just four brokers in 2006.

Zack was just working in LA at the firm's investment services group. (We haven't had the heart to tell him we're about to enter NorCal winter, so his water sports fetish might require an extra wetsuit. Still, he's a Lafayette native, so he's aware.) Here he'll focus on selling and leasing industrial/R&D properties along the north 880/580 corridor (Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Richmond). And the firm's Andrew Stoddard was just promoted from agent to principal, completing over 1.5M SF of leasing and sale transactions. He's another H20 aficionado, having been an All-American water polo player at UC Berkeley.