Real-Estate Broker Eastdil Hires Allianz Executive for N.Y. Sales
December 10 2018 - 11:31AM
Dow Jones News
By Craig Karmin
Real-estate broker Eastdil Secured has hired a top U.S.
executive from a European financial firm, a move that could bolster
the broker as its parent company Wells Fargo & Co. weighs a
sale of Eastdil.
Gary Phillips, head of acquisitions for Allianz Real Estate of
America, a unit of the German-based insurance and asset manager
Allianz SE, is leaving for Eastdil. He starts this month as
managing director for real-estate sales and capital markets in New
York, according to people familiar with the matter.
Eastdil is bringing in Mr. Phillips as the firm and Wells Fargo
continue negotiations to sell the real-estate firm, according to
people familiar with the matter.
The bank has been exploring a sale of Eastdil Secured for about
a year, but more recently Eastdil Chief Executive Roy March has
taken over the process, these people said.
Eastdil has been looking for a big name hire since losing some
of its top brokers to aggressive rivals. The firm, which
specializes in sales and refinancing, lost a top-performing group
in New York City led by Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies, when they
moved to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. in 2016. In May, Newmark
Group Inc. poached a senior hotel sales and financing team.
Eastdil is a niche firm that focuses on the business of selling
buildings. It has held a leading position in major markets like New
York and Los Angeles. It is smaller than rivals like CBRE Group
Inc. and Cushman & Wakefield that offer services like property
management that offer steadier income and are less vulnerable to
economic cycles.
Real-estate brokerage firms have faced new challenges this year.
The long rally in commercial real estate is about nine years old
and has been showing signs of losing steam more recently, with
prices leveling off in 2018 after a big run.
Mr. Phillips, 39, is a veteran investor who previously worked at
a real-estate investment arm of Deutsche Bank AG and with Clarion
Partners, a New York-based property investment firm.
At Allianz, Mr. Phillips was responsible for deploying billions
of dollars to buy U.S. real estate and he often was involved in
complex transactions. He will be working on similar real-estate
deals in his new position, only now from the sales side rather than
the acquisition side.
Write to Craig Karmin at craig.karmin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 10, 2018 11:16 ET (16:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024