PHOENIX-Grubb & Ellis Co. has launched a new company-owned office in the Valley and has tapped Pete Bolton to head its local operations. He joins the firm as an executive vice president and managing director.
Although Grubb & Ellis has had a presence in Phoenix market for more than 42 years, it has not had a corporate-owned office here since 2003 when it became broker-owned boutique firm Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial. That firm joined with Cassidy Turley when Grubb & Ellis indicated that it wanted to buy back the local office, according to Bolton.
Grubb & Ellis has opened a temporary office at the Esplanade IV, located at 2575 East Camelback Rd. and expects to finalize a permanent location in the next couple of weeks, Bolton says. The firm’s management services professionals will continue to operate from its current location at 8700 E. Via de Ventura, Suite 150, in Scottsdale until the company moves into a permanent office.
For the past three years, Bolton has worked independently. He left CB Richard Ellis, where he was senior managing director, in 2007. His career has come full-circle – his first job in the commercial real estate business was with Grubb & Ellis in the 1980s as an industrial broker.
“The challenge is that we’re basically starting over from scratch,” Bolton says. “We need brokers and support staff.” He tells GlobeSt. that 11 brokers have already joined the new shop and another four to five will be added in the next two weeks. By year end, he hopes to have 30 to 40 brokerage professionals and support staff on board.
“It couldn’t be a better time to bring on brokers because there are a lot of disenfranchised brokers around,” Bolton says, adding that many younger brokers left the business during this most recent downturn and senior brokers are evaluating their teams and the companies for which they work.
Among the brokers who have already joined are Steve Julius and Jesse Goldsmith, formerly with Marcus & Millichap’s local office. “The vision that Grubb & Ellis has fits my business plan better than any other firm, and Grubb & Ellis provides us with great marketing, a very talented staff and the opportunity to compete at the highest level,” Goldsmith tells GlobeSt.
“Grubb & Ellis provides a lot of support for their brokers and gives them to the tools they need to service the clients,” Julius adds. “Also, Pete Bolton is a great leader and business coach with an excellent reputation in Phoenix, and we’re excited to be working with him.”
The new Grubb & Ellis office will offer the same platform of expertise and services that the firm offers nationally, Bolton says. It will have experts in office, industrial, retail and multifamily including teams exclusively focused on investment sales.
“It’s a unique and exciting situation to be building a brokerage firm from the ground up, but already have the national brand and reputation in place,” Julius says. “Since they are recruiting existing, experienced agents in the different practice areas, we will have instant market share.”
In contrast to many competitive firms, the new Grubb & Ellis office will be 100% team-oriented, Bolton says. “There will be no lone wolves in this office – it will be a pure teaming environment,” he explains. “If we bring on an industrial broker, for example, we’re going to find someone to team with him and then add a marketing assistant.”
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