NEW YORK CITY-Following the high-profile move of Arthur Mirante from Cushman & Wakefield to lead Avison Young’s New York City office, the Canadian-based commercial estate services company is aggressively expanding into the Manhattan market, making eight new hires effective immediately, GlobeSt.com has learned. The company has tapped Grubb & Ellis veterans Vincent Carrega, Neil C. Helman, Jon Epstein and Charles B. Kingsley as principals to lead the firm’s investment sales division.

The company has also hired Michael Berk, Steve Rooney, Jason Mazin and Miriam Halpert—also from Grubb—to work in the firm’s new Manhattan office. Berk and Rooney will serve as financial analysts; Mazin will take the reigns as marketing coordinator; and Halpert will join as an investment sales broker.

The moves, Helman tells GlobeSt.com, were in the works as the news about Mirante made waves throughout the New York real estate community. “I can certainly say that Arthur coming on board certainly made our decision,” he says. We’ve realized that it was clearly that right decision to make. He’s so well respected in the industry, and obviously both Arthur and our group had to be having conversations pretty much simultaneously based on the announcements. It only solidified our choice of having Avison Young as the right platform to go to.”