CBRE poaches upscale retail team in West LA from JLL

 A team of top retail brokers in West L.A. have jumped to CBRE from JLL. 

Houman Mahboubi, Greg Briest and Marisa Renfro have all joined CBRE’s team in West L.A., focusing on retail leasing and sales, CBRE announced Monday. 

Mahboubi and Briest had been with JLL since 2016, according to state licensing records. Renfro joined JLL in 2022. 

The new hires significantly boost CBRE’s presence across West Los Angeles, especially in Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle. 

Mahboubi’s name is often featured in listings on Rodeo Drive and North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills and Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, along with Newmark’s Jay Luchs and Cushman & Wakefield’s Carine Mamann and Kazuko Morgan. 

CBRE had previously benefited from Richard Rizika, a top broker who left CBRE in 2018 to found his own advisory company. 

Mahboubi’s largest deal over the last three years was brokering the $200 million sale of the Luxe Rodeo Drive hotel at 360 North Rodeo Drive on behalf of the seller, the Harkham family, according to a release from JLL at the time. Luchs also brokered the deal.

In September, he and his team brokered a 5,300-square-foot lease for department store Kitson at 420 North Beverly Drive. Mahboubi worked on behalf of the landlord, B&A Management, according to JLL, while Luchs represented Kitson.

“Retail real estate remains in demand,” Mahboubi said in a statement. 

Retail leasing across L.A. County has dipped over the last year, in line with a slowdown in consumer spending. About 1.3 million square feet of new retail leases were signed in the third quarter, according to Colliers, down 27 percent from the same three-month period last year.