Bruce G. Zimmerman is president and owner of Commercial Devco, Inc., a company formed in 1979 to develop shopping centers on a joint venture basis with financial partners. Bruce has been a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers since 1979. Mr. Zimmerman has extensive expertise in shopping center site acquisition, development, leasing, management, finance and construction. He also has a strong background in business, tax, and estate planning. He is a licensed California attorney, real estate broker and general contractor. He has authored numerous articles in leading real estate and law journals. 

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He received his B.A. degree from Stanford University with Distinction and Departmental Honors in Economics (1969), and his J.D. degree from the U.S.C. Law School (1972). The author practiced law until 1977. Thereafter, until the formation of Commercial Devco, Inc., he was an officer, director and equity partner with a development company engaged in shopping center and other development projects, as well as investment brokerage activities. From July 1987 through July 1989 he was an executive officer and equity partner with a major Denver-based development company, responsible for forming and directing its California Division. Thereafter, he opened a Southern California shopping center development office as an employee/equity partner with Federal Realty Investment Trust, the oldest REIT in America.

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Since 1998 until 2020 he served as Senior Partner at Clarion Consulting in Irvine, California, where he has worked under contract with America’s largest supermarket, drugstore and other anchor retailers. He has been responsible for redeveloping and improving client anchor stores and shopping centers throughout the United States, dramatically improving the performance of client stores and creating substantial value for landlords of such shopping centers.

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The author is an expert in the dynamic use of letters of intent and other preliminary or informal forms of agreement to enhance deal making competence and productivity. He is available to provide practical instruction to groups in the use of the materials contained in this book.

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Bruce’s professional education classes, which include strategic and practical instruction on the use of Shopping Center DealMaker’s Handbook®, have produced dramatic productivity gains for developers, owners, retailers, brokers, asset managers and their attorneys. In fact, most participants have remarked that by using the approach and forms in this resource, transaction time from inception to completion is 30%-40% less than it would be without Shopping Center DealMaker’s Handbook®.