SportsMark Management Group, headquartered in San Rafael, has just been named “corporate hospitality management partner” for the 34th America’s Cup and the exclusive sales agent for events sponsored by the America’s Cup Club.

That means the company will manage numerous events, beginning in August, at the America’s Cup World Series, with a special viewing area, gourmet meals, a hosted bar and an opportunity to have your picture taken with the trophy itself at a tented venue next to the Golden Gate Yacht Club.

It will be doing the same for land- and water-based events, including inside the restricted race perimeter between Piers 27 and 29, during the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup finals in 2013.

“This is extremely important for us, because it’s based in the Bay Area, in our backyard,” said Keith Bruce, president of SportsMark, which has offices in London and Sao Paulo, in addition to San Rafael.

Bruce wouldn’t disclose details of the deal, except to describe it as a “business partnership with a revenue share arrangement.” With an estimated 200,000 visitors a day expected, the arrangement is worth many millions, it’s probably safe to say.

“There will be strong demand for America’s Cup Club hospitality packages,” said Stephen Barclay, interim CEO of the America’s Cup. “We are very pleased to have SportsMark, a leader in global sports hospitality management, join us as a partner.”

The feeling, we suspect, is entirely mutual.

Ready for fun: Should there be any yachting fans among the 100 or so local employees of EVault, they’ve been relocated to San Francisco at the right time.

This month the cloud storage and data backup and recovery company, owned by Seagate Technology, moved its global headquarters and offices in Emeryville and Santa Clara to San Francisco’s South of Market area, on Third Street near Moscone Center.

“It’s much more vibrant, much more fun, and our customers love coming to the city,” said Terry Cunningham, EVault president and general manager.

Well, maybe not all 35,000 mid-size corporate customers who have signed on to EVault’s cloud-based services. The 15-year-old company, acquired by Seagate in 2007, has offices and operations in New York, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Ontario and the Netherlands.

Cunningham said he’s looking to double the staff in San Francisco over the next couple of years. And there just so happens to be another 28,000 square feet available on the floor above its new location.

One door closes …: As Grubb Ellis winds down – it declared bankruptcy in March – Cornish Carey is ramping up.

On Friday, the Santa Clara real estate company is announcing it has taken on 28 senior brokers from Grubb Ellis, including its former San Francisco executive vice president, Daniel Cressman, who was named executive managing director at Cornish Carey.

That brings the number of the firm’s brokers to 310 in eight offices in Northern California. “The opportunity for a commercial real estate firm to hire a large number of highly regarded quality agents at one time is extremely rare,” noted the firm’s CEO, Chuck Seufferlein.

Cornish Carey partnered with New York’s Newmark Knight Frank in 2010, which in turn was bought by BGC Partners, a global financial and property brokerage company, also from in New York.

Last month BGC took over the bankrupt Grubb Ellis and integrated it into Newmark Knight Grubb Frank – as opposed to the formally named Cornish Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank, which Cressman and other Grubb Ellis alumni have now joined.

We’re sure it’s one big family. “It’s the best move I’ve made in my 30 years in the business,” says Cressman.

Clothes horses: One of the objections raised by folks who wanted to keep the Gold Dust Lounge in Union Square – before deciding this week to head for Fisherman’s Wharf – went along the lines of “Jeez, we don’t need another chain clothing store in the area.”

That was a reference to Express, the apparel chain with 14 other outlets in the Bay Area, which is scheduled to take over the space being vacated by the bar this week.

Last time we checked, Express was due to open on the corner of Powell and Geary streets in the fall. However, the three-month dispute between the Gold Dust Lounge’s proprietors and the building’s owner has set that back a bit.

“I don’t have any specifics on a timeline but we will most likely open in 2013,” said spokeswoman Barbara Coleman.

Not to despair, however. Another big retail store is set open in the fall, just one block down from the Gold Dust Lounge on Powell Street. That would be Uniqlo, a Japanese discount chain that has three outlets in New York and more planned in various parts of the United States.

The chain’s 29,000-square-foot “West Coast flagship” will be at 111 Powell St., cheek-by-jowl with Gap‘s flagship, HM and Urban Outfitters.

Calling San Francisco “a world leading center in innovative technology,” Tadashi Yanai, CEO of Uniqlo’s parent company Fast Retailing Co., said last month, “We look forward to working closely with the people of San Francisco to help us create the best possible store.”

Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Blogging at www.sfgate.com/columns/bottomline. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @andrewsross Facebook page: sfg.ly/doACKM

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/americascup/2012/05/25/sportsmark-named-agent-for-americas-cup-club/