When it comes to commercial real estate, deals involving office buildings especially class-A high-rises grab nearly all the attention because they make the sexiest stories.

But don’t discount the work of Bill and Dawn Lowder, who have quietly thrived in a niche well below the radar screen: church and non-profit brokerage.

The couple recently took that niche to a new level with the merger of their firm, Christian Commercial Services, with Charles Dunn Co. In the process, the Lowders moved from their office of seven years in Rancho Cucamonga to downtown Los Angeles.

“We started small and grew to the point that we needed to service a greater geographic area,” said Bill Lowder. “The reputation of Charles Dunn, and their knowledge of working with schools and churches was a good mix. The synergy was there for us.”

The Lowders broker deals from Santa Barbara to San Diego, helping churches and non-profits expand, relocate, buy, sell or lease property. Sometimes they serve as consultants in evaluating church resources and hooking up clients with lenders.

Mike Dunn, executive vice president at Charles Dunn’s downtown office, said his firm long has done work with non-profits and churches, including the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

“In the past 10 years, we’ve seen an explosion in the nonprofit sector in L.A.,” he said. “Groups have funding sources and special occupancy requirements, so it does sort of require a specialty.”

The Lowders are currently working with about 50 churches seeking new locations, and they’ve listed more than a dozen churches or sites for sale in Southern California. Their deals generally range from $250,000 to $5 million.

“It’s a real niche in real estate. While it does have a lot of the same characteristics of commercial real estate, the amount of time and patience is more extensive,” Bill Lowder said.

Before launching the firm, Lowder worked for 20 years in store development and sales with Ben Franklin Store, True Value Hardware and Ace Hardware.

Dawn Lowder has 30 years of commercial real estate experience, including several years at the Ontario office of Lee & Associates. She has leased more than 2.5 million square feet of retail space and sold 100 acres for commercial development.

Bill Lowder said that when his wife was at Lee, she would sometimes get calls from other brokers about churches that needed help finding a location.

“Often they would already have made the purchase, and they couldn’t build a church because they didn’t have the zoning,” he recalled. “That’s really how we came to realize there’s a need. While most church boards are made up of professional people, they’re volunteers. Sometimes they need a third person outside the congregation to look at it and be candid with them.”

While part of their motivation obviously is making a living, there’s another dimension to the work of the Lowders.

“There’s no better feeling than knowing you’ve done a good job,” Bill Lowder said. “You can see the fruits of your labor. That’s worth a lot, rather than just taking a commission check.”

Historical property sold

The Hertz Group has expanded its portfolio of downtown historical buildings with its acquisition of the Twin Springs building from John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co.

The vintage-1927 property consists of two adjoining office towers at 419 and 433 S. Spring St., encompassing 360,000 square feet.

Hertz plans to target large Internet and telecom tenants to fill the vacant space at the 433 tower. The other structure is fully leased to various city government offices, said Managing Director Deborah Lee.

Job hops

Cresa Partners has hired two veteran brokers from CB Richard Ellis.

David Toomey and Brian Davies, who had been at CB for 13 and 10 years, respectively, joined Brentwood-based Cresa last week.

“Cresa has got such a solid platform here, not only representing tenants of all industries, but specifically they’ve made a strong mark in the technology sector,” Toomey said. “It was a great fit for us.”

Toomey has negotiated at least 300 transactions totaling more than 5 million square feet, while Davies has represented clients in more than 200 assignments in excess of 4.5 million square feet.

Both handled the pending relocation of Western Initiative Media Worldwide from West Hollywood to Wilshire Courtyard.

“This is more of a strategic acquisition for us,” said Cresa President Jerry Porter. “In general, we’re not looking to build this thing by any great numbers. We’re just looking for good people.”

Downtown leases

Downtown has received a shot in the arm in the form of two leases at Transamerica Center.

Maxicare Health Plans Inc. is renewing its lease for 82,700 square feet, while Pitney Bowes is leasing 13,000 square feet. The combined value is $7 million, about three-quarters of which is from Maxicare.

The 1.3 million-square-foot building is now 90 percent occupied, said Bruce Asper of Jones Lang LaSalle, who represented the landlord. He said both tenants mentioned the neighboring Staples Center as a factor in their decision to locate at Transamerica.

“It’s certainly important for the area and the perception of amenities going forward,” Asper said.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Brad Feld represented Maxicare, a national employee benefits company.

Century City deal

Equity Office Properties Trust has purchased a portion of the mezzanine debt on 1999 Ave. of the Stars in Century City. Known as SunAmerica Center, it’s one of L.A.’s most prestigious office buildings, but it’s also burdened with high debt.

The deal involved restructuring and refinancing in which the Chicago-based real estate investment trust paid $72.4 million for 67 percent of the mezzanine portion.

Lehman Brothers also arranged $210 million of first mortgage financing, which will replace a similar amount of existing secured debt.

The prestigious, 38-story tower will continue to be owned by JMB Realty Corp., which retained Equity to manage and lease the property as part of the deal.

Elizabeth Hayes can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 229, or at [email protected].