Goldman has already hired Bruce Davis and Roger Coryne from Halstead's existing staff of brokers, and is looking to expand the roster as quickly as possible. "Unlike some companies or individuals that may not have a lot to do right now, we're overbooked" and already handling transactions, he says. Halstead's decision to enter the commercial arena "seems to have been the right one."

The decision to go into investment sales was a natural outgrowth of the existing business, says Halstead president Diane Ramirez in a release, although Goldman notes that the companny "had not pursued the commercial field in an organized way before. There was a lot of capability, and people in the residential area had access to commercial transactions as well in the normal scheme of things, but that was not something that they had sought after. They decided to set up this division to take the referrals from within the larger organization and service them with a team of experienced brokers, which I'm actively recruiting."

With the housing slump now beginning to reach the New York City market, it might seem as though the investment sales division was established to take up the slack, yet Goldman says that wasn't the intention. "A lot of people have asked, 'Did you go into this because the residential market is down and you needed to do something different?' and that is not the case," he says.