Veteran Hawai'i commercial real estate broker Douglas Pothul is returning to the business after a five-year hiatus, re-establishing a local office for national real estate investment services firm Marcus & Millichap.

Pothul joins the Encino, Calif.-based company as a senior associate specializing in the sale of office, retail and industrial property and working out of a Kailua office.

Pothul in 2004 left a 17-year career with local firm Colliers Monroe Friedlander to set up a Hawai'i office for Marcus & Millichap, but withdrew after his wife, Annette, was diagnosed with cancer in September 2004.

After she died in January 2005, Pothul focused on raising their three sons.

Since then, Marcus & Millichap has maintained an interest in having a Hawai'i broker connect Mainland investors with Hawai'i property and vice versa.

Marcus & Millichap, founded in 1971, primarily represents institutional and large real estate investors buying and selling property. The company has financing and research arms, but doesn't manage or lease property like full-service firms.