NEW YORK CITY-Continuing its white-hot growth streak, Avison Young has opened a Long Island office, giving the firm its 50th office. The effort is being spearheaded by Ted Stratigos—formerly of Cushman & Wakefield—who tells GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVELY that he brought over one of his brokers, Amanda Gorozdi, for the new entity.
Stratigos has hired another broker but declined to reveal who will be in the role. AY's Long Island office, will cover not only Nassau and Suffolk counties but also Queens and Brooklyn. The outter boroughs are technically on the Island, Stratigos notes.
The time was right to establish such an effort, he says. “Long Island is a market that no firm can afford to ignore,” says Stratigos. “In the office sector across Nassau and Suffolk alone there is about 40 million square feet, and industrial is 200 million square feet. When you add Queens and Brooklyn, the numbers more than double. And many companies in the City have satellite or back offices here."
Plans for the Long Island effort are ambitious. “We'd like to continue to grow rapidly, hopefully staffing up to 10 brokers or client services experts in the first year, and eventually getting to 20 or more. But we don't just want to have brokers,” he said. “Over time, we want to offer appraisal, property management, corporate service and consulting services.”
Other firms appear to recognize the importance of this extension to New York City. Lee & Associates established a Long Island office last week.
Avison Young Long Island will work closely with Avison's New York City and New Jersey offices, Stratigos says, as well as a Fairfield County office that likely will be opened in the future. No further information about that office was available at press time. The work of each of these entities isnot expected to step on each other's toes.
“The idea is not to triple each other and more collaborative so we won't overlap,” he says. “And if we do, we'll work together.” Stratigos was mostly recently an executive director in Cushman & Wakefield's Long Island office, where he toiled for 32 years. He was enticed to leave by Avison's collaborative approach, he says.
“Cushman & Wakefield is a great firm. I grew up there and in 32 years I worked on a lot of transactions. But Avison Young's collaborative teamwork model isn't like what I've seen before, and it allows me to recruit and pull in brokers who can work together and share information, which is critical to us servicing our clients.”
As a service business, he adds.“Our ability to have timely information and to share it is important. The time is right for a firm out here to do that.”
No further information about Gorozdi was available at press time. Cushman & Wakefield declined to comment on the departures.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Rayna Katz
Rayna Katz is a seasoned business journalist whose extensive experience includes coverage of the lodging sector, travel and the culinary space. She was most recently content director for a business-to-business publisher, overseeing four publications. While at Meeting News, a travel trade publication, she received a Best Reporting award for a story on meeting cancellations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
