Kevin Hodges, a founding principal of Cresa Partners in Houston with more than 16 years of experience, has taken on a senior managing director role, along with Rand Stephens, a managing partner in Houston-based Blackstone Partners. Stephens' team at Blackstone--Josh LaRocca, Chris Torn and Scott Torn--accepted managing director positions.

"These five professionals are the first brokers to join us since we launched," says Steven Biegel, senior vice president and co-branch manager for Studley's Houston office. "All of them have established relationships with Houston companies and bring great synergies to Studley."

Hodges resigned from Cresa Partners about two months ago to pursue other opportunities. At Studley, he will focus on representing office users. Art Baylis now serves as the managing principal for the local Cresa office. Cresa did not return telephone calls for comment prior to publication time.