The 9,000-member Southland Regional Association of Realtors recently expanded its commitment to servicing the highly specialized sector of the commercial and investment real estate markets in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

The Association’s 23-member Board of Directors this January ratified changing its longstanding commercial real estate committee into the Commercial & Investment Division.

The decision acknowledges burgeoning demand from the more than 3,200 SRAR members who list a commercial specialty, including: commercial and industrial land and lots, small retail buildings, business opportunities, multi-residential units and apartment property management.

“The Association for three decades has provided networking opportunities, educational meetings and technical support to Realtors who specialize in various types of commercial and investment property,” said Sharon Barron, SRAR president. “The added emphasis the Division brings reflects the fact that many of our commercial and investment events already draw standing-room only crowds. A Division enables SRAR to assume an even higher profile in this vital sector of the commercial and investment real estate market.”

Jim Link, the Association’s chief executive officer, said that the Commercial & Investment Division would allow SRAR to target all types of commercial and investment real estate activity and opportunities.

“From buyers or sellers of medium to small strip malls along Ventura Boulevard, mom-and-pop corner business leaders in Granada Hills, to owners of commercially zoned land in Northridge or Santa Clarita, they all have much in common,” Link said. “Realtors and their clients all have a need for access to expert real estate support, specialized information, and insight on commercial codes, laws, rules and regulations.

“That’s the kind of real estate expertise that often makes the difference between success or failure of a small business,” Link said. “SRAR has been the clearinghouse for that vital local knowledge and support.”

To maintain focus on their mission, Richard Bozzi, chairman of the Division, said the Association serves members who concentrate on the $10 million and under commercial and investment market.

“Obviously, there will be overlap, higher and lower,” he said. “Yet, just as selling vast high-rise commercial buildings for hundreds of millions of dollars requires deep, specific knowledge, we know that the under $10 million commercial and investment market often can be just as complicated, just as specialized, with an even smaller margin of error.”

SRAR recently was selected in 2012 by the National Association of Realtors to be one of the first of six recipients of the Accredited Commercial Excellence award in recognition of the Association’s extraordinary leadership in providing commercial programs to its members and the community. N.A.R. also awarded its Realtors’ Commercial Alliance award in 2009 to SRAR for surpassing specific benchmarks in its efforts to engage members with high quality commercial services.

The Association has had a commercial and investment committee and commercial events dating back to 1984 and earlier. For example, the Commercial Networking Meeting in the San Fernando Valley has met monthly for more than 20 years. A second commercial networking meeting was added in 2011 to serve the Santa Clarita Valley.

Both meetings along with annual events and regular daylong seminars provide an opportunity for networking, pitching commercial listings, and gaining insight into a wide range of commercial topics presented by a stable of experienced speakers.

SRAR’s next seminar in its 2013 commercial and investment real estate monthly educational series will be held on Wednesday, July 17. The focus will be “Small Property Investment Brokerage.”

For more information, contact SRAR’s education department at 818-947-2268 or go to www.commercialdataexchange.com.

The Southland Regional Association of Realtors® is a local trade association with more than 9,000 members serving the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys. SRAR is one of the largest local associations in the nation.