DJK Residential launches commercial division

The agent who launched a commercial division at Kurland Realty is now doing the same for DJK Residential.

Allan Gallaway, who was managing director of the commercial division at Kurland for five years, started his new position, as senior vice president at the newly formed DJK Commercial Realty, a week ago (the website isn’t live yet). He is now working to recruit agents for the team, which he expects to amount to three to five people. The division will focus on leasing office, restaurant and retail space as well as retail condo sales and investment sales including hotels.

Gallaway opted to start the commercial team at DJK, a residential real estate and relocation firm, rather than go to an established commercial firm because “I get to be my own boss,” he said. DJK, located at 101 Fifth Avenue, between 17th and 18th streets, approached him about the position, he said, and he feels the time was right and there he gets “much broader support.”

At Kurland, he said, he felt he “was spread much too thin” as “a one-man game.”

Phyllis Pezenik, vice president and managing director at DJK, and Kevin Kurland, president and founder of Kurland Realty, weren’t immediately available for comment.

Gallaway’s current listings include 50 Second Avenue, a building for sale near East 3rd Street priced at $10.995 million; a restaurant space for lease at 56 Third Avenue, between 10th and 11th streets, for $26,000 a month; and an office condominium floor for sale at 321 Broadway, between Thomas and Worth streets, for $2.2 million.

Prior to Kurland, Gallaway was at Bernstein Real Estate, a real estate investment, management and brokerage firm, for 10 years and before that he was a long-time owner of a manufacturing company in the Garment District.