SANTA ROSA -- To capitalize on demand for retail development, investment, and leasing, commercial real estate brokerage Keegan & Coppin is pooling its retail talent into a brain trust to focus on that growing market.

Since summer, Keegan & Coppin has been assembling the retail team and creating a marketing backbone for the Internet and mass mail, according to Lori Ott, a retail specialist and the coordinator of the new venture.

"Our goal is to create a pipeline of information for landowners in the unique difficulties in permitting [projects] in the area and staying on top of our relationships with the cities," Ms. Ott says.

Spearheading the team will be Keegan & Coppin partners Dino D'Argenzio and Tom Laugero. Other members of the retail group are Annette Cooper, Rhonda Deringer, Bill Faherty, Ruben Mejia, Rama Mejia, Emily McGranaghan, and Bill Hester. All together, they say they've brokered more than 1,500,000sf of retail development and $200 million in retail deals.

Mr. Laugero represented DSL Service Company in its fall 2004 purchase of 36.5 acres in Petaluma for a 322,000sf community shopping center called Deer Creek Plaza. He had been working with DSL for a decade on that property, including the last seven years in escrow.

Among Mr. D'Argenzio's projects is the development and leasing of the 300,000sf Shiloh Center regional mall in Windsor.

Mark Koenig of BT Commercial Real Estate's Terranomics retail division welcomes Keegan & Coppin's focus on retail. "They are opening the market to ownership and tenants," Mr. Koenig says. "It's nicest for us when a property is listed by Keegan & Coppin, or Orion Partners, or anyone, so agents can communicate and share information."

BT's North Bay-based retail specialists are Mr. Koenig, John Schaefer, and Rhonda Diaz in San Rafael. Paul Gonzalez handles many retail deals out of BT's Santa Rosa office. Other Terranomics agents serve the North Bay from San Francisco.

Agents for Orion Partners, which is ranked by the BUSINESS JOURNAL as the second-largest commercial brokerage in the North Bay, tend not to specialize in a specific product type. Rather, they broker various leasing and investment deals. However, some have extensive retail experience, such as Matt Krupp, Brad Yust, and Carlos Rivas.

However, Santa Rosa-based North Bay Commercial Real Estate is putting together a retail team, according to Sara Wann, a retail specialist who joined the firm in September. Details are still jelling, but the team would likely include longtime agent Vicki Greenbaum, recent addition Nick Abbott, and Adam Menconi, who specializes in development projects.

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