Yesterday’s scoop via a plugged-in Charlie Moore (CEO of McGuire):
I wanted to personally give you the official word that McGuire and Urban Bay are merging. The companies have been in discussion for well over a year, and both felt there were strong benefits to joining forces: McGuire has strong traditions and is well-established in north of Market neighborhoods, while the Urban Bay brings more of a “hip” brand to the South of Market neighborhoods. What’s more, McGuire has offices in Burlingame and Mill Valley, and Urban Bay has a presence in Oakland’s Jack London Square.
And via an “Insider”:
For now UBP will retain current branding but will change color schemes to match the new McGuire coloring. Tom Brown becomes COO of McGuire. No news on closing of the McGuire Davis Street office or the UPB Bluxome street office.
Cheers. And as always, thank you for plugging in.
∙ RandomRumors: McGuire Real Estate/Urban Bay Properties In Talks [SocketSite]
= not enough business left to make competition worthwile and we’ll save money on office supplies.
contraction and consolidation as the excesses of the bubble years disappear.
The purple colors is what makes Urban Bay Properties hip, like the Clift Hotel or W Hotel. The McGuire green and beige colors look old and dated. If UBP changes its color scheme, it will no longer be considered as “hip” and “cool.”
I was told by someone that works at UB that they will be keeping two very different brand images. They are not so much merging together as they are going to now “just be” owned by McGuire.
I think the hipness of their signature purple is here to stay… (-;
“Hipness” is ,first, a state of mind, and an attitude, a ‘culture’ thing….. I guess you could say certain colors are ‘hip’ too.
Has there been any actual talk of them shutting down the McGuire Davis street location? Who knows about this?
Our Davis Street location has served us well for 20+ years. We intend to continue there pending further guidance from our ‘transition team’. As with any assimilation process there will be many questions and answers. We look forward to a prosperous future.
Hopefully Mcguire wont kill the brand or force their stodgy, dated image onto UBay.
And for christ sake, if someone wants to put their image on their business card, let them.
Trin: We agree: certainly McGuire wants UBAY to continue to thrive as it has for many years. Our joint teams are working on best methods to accomplish desired results: much of which are the ‘how to’s’ of branding, etc. Thanks for your input.