"If you make the community and your clients your highest priority, success is the result." —Al Coppin
When you walk into the shared office of Executive Vice President and Broker James Keegan and President Al Coppin, co-owners of Keegan and Coppin Co., Inc. (K&C), you instantly become aware of community involvement and family pride. The walls are decorated with framed awards and certificates of recognition. Pictures of family and beautiful, smiling grandchildren give one a feeling of welcome. Celebrating its 40th year in the North Bay, Keegan and Coppin, Inc. – ONCOR International, is a full-service real estate company providing marketing services for the office, industrial, retail and investment markets as well as promoting the economic development of our community.
Founded in 1976, the partners have since grown the company into the largest commercial real estate firm in the North Bay. Both natives of Sonoma County (Keegan was born in Santa Rosa and Coppin in Petaluma), the men met while working at Grubb and Ellis Commercial Brokerage in the early 1970s. “We were both young, saw we could work together and decided to start a company,” says Coppin.
They were motivated by the knowledge that they were working for a national company, when they felt better service could be provided with a local perspective. At the time they opened their doors there was lots of land development happening and they wanted to help. This idea paired with the assertion, “we weren’t sales people, we were consultants,” led them to structure the company around a different set of principles.
In those days, Coppin says, “You could start a company on a shoestring with a lot of dreams.”
They had the vision of “a one-stop shopping experience, where we could service our clients from buying the building and through to providing rental or selling support.” Today’s services include regional knowledge with national connections through ONCOR International, an in-depth computer network system of the entire marketplace of land and buildings, investments, land and leasing projects, tenant and landlord representation and build-to-suits. Keegan and Coppin has an in-house division for property management and construction.
Based in Santa Rosa with offices in Petaluma and Larkspur, K&C isn’t only the premier commercial real estate broker in the North Bay, it also has extensive experience managing and developing business parks, including land sale and build-to-suit transactions. The company’s agents are knowledgeable in leasing and sales transaction and can represent landlords from small building projects to major new developments and all sizes of tenancy (from those just starting out to major corporations).
Company values include encouraging continued professional education and technology transfer between employees, updating methods with industry standards and technical requirements, in addition to backing up each agent with the company’s experience and resources. All clients, employees, agents and partners are treated with the same respect, cordiality and compassion. Above all, K&C upholds open, transparent and timely communications directly with all clients and pursues a comprehensive and professional approach to all real estate services. “The cumulative result is to productively employ our knowledge of the marketplace, to enhance our effectiveness in leasing, selling and managing commercial real estate and providing ‘value added’ results for our clients,” says Coppin.
Both Keegan and Coppin agree that, when a business is part of a community, it’s important to give back. It’s a commitment both of them have demonstrated over their four decades working together. “If you make the community and your clients your highest priority, success is the result,” says Coppin. K&C supports programs like the new Social Advocates for Youth (SAY) Dream Center, the Salvation Army and the Redwood Empire Food Bank, and many K&C employees serve on a multitude of boards, both as members and in an advisory capacity.
In 2015, Keegan underwent a heart transplant. Looking vibrant and healthy today, he draws a comparison between healing and growing a business: “It’s one step at a time,” he says. “With lots of support from family and the community, along with faith, it’s all going to work out.”
