CHICAGO—Berkadia, a joint venture between Berkshire Hathaway and Leucadia National Corp., has just completed a major expansion of its multifamily investment sales team for the Midwest by hiring a set of advisors and supporting team members from Marcus & Millichap. The 12 new hires will be located in Berkadia's Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City offices. In the last 12 months, this team has closed 31 transactions totaling more than $300 million.

Eight of the new hires will join the Chicago office, bringing the total number of mortgage banking and investment sales professionals here to 36. Senior directors David Gaines and Alex Blagojevich, along with director Michael Sullivan, lead the team, which has brokered more than $1 billion in the sale of over 17,000 units across the region.

“Given Berkadia's rapid growth this year, we saw this move as a great opportunity to spearhead the company's expansion in the Midwest,” Blagojevich tells GlobeSt.com. “Our team brings to the table an in-depth knowledge of the markets and owners in the region. This knowledge, combined with Berkadia's national network of mortgage banking and investment sales professionals and the centralized marketing and research platform, we are uniquely positioned to bring value-added service and execution to our clients.”

Across Berkadia's 70 offices, multifamily investment sales and mortgage banking production exceeded $17 billion in 2014, company officials say, with volumes on pace to surpass that during the calendar year.

“While we have steadily expanded our investment sales team, this wave of new hires provides Berkadia's Midwest investment sales platform with a tremendous boost in market share, capabilities and resources,” says Brent Long, president of investment sales at Berkadia.

Gaines and Blagojevich have investment sales experience in many states, including IL, IN, WI, MO, KS, IA, and NE. Prior to joining Berkadia, both served as vice president investments and senior directors at Marcus & Millichap.

Sullivan, who will join the Kansas City office, brings 12 years of commercial real estate experience to Berkadia. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a senior associate at Marcus & Millichap.

The new Berkadia team has also added six associate directors: Grant Kollman and Brett Meinzer to the Kansas City office, Patrick Sullivan to the St. Louis office and Greg Gonzalez, Chris Bruzas and William Ryan to the Chicago office. The Chicago office has also brought on Greg Bloomer as a marketing assistant, Robert Perez as an analyst and Brynne Barnard as a transaction manager.