Corcoran’s Brian Meier heads to Christie’s

Brian Meier — one of the Corcoran Group’s top-producing agents — has joined Christie’s International Real Estate’s two-year-old New York brokerage.

Meier and his 11-person team, including his wife, Kate, moved to Christie’s Friday, he confirmed.

Meier joined Corcoran in 2015 from Douglas Elliman. Last year, the team closed $112.6 million in sales. It currently has more than a dozen for-sale exclusives, including 310 West 88th Street, an 8,850-square-foot townhouse asking $14.5 million.

Meier said he wasn’t looking for a change when he was introduced to Christie’s by a mutual friend. But he was swayed by the firm’s international presence and art-world connections. “I was looking for a brand and company that was going to be able to give my clients the most benefit,” said Meier, who also rebranded his team as Meier Estates and Ventures. “It will open up doors to meet more people.”

Christie’s, which launched in January 2018, currently has 23 agents in New York, including Erin Boisson Aries.
Prior to 2018, the auction house had an affiliation with Brown Harris Stevens, but it severed those ties to go it alone.

Christie’s CEO Dan Conn

CEO Dan Conn said he hasn’t been actively recruiting agents to join the brokerage, which he doesn’t envision growing larger than 50 agents.

“The objective is that all of the agents that we bring on — notably the team leaders — are experts in the field, so they’re standing shoulder to shoulder with our specialists who are experts in art and luxury goods,” Conn said. “They’re all trusted by their clients.”

The auction house’s main competitor also has brokerage ties. Sotheby’s International Realty operates as a franchise owned by Realogy, the parent company to Corcoran, Citi Habitats and Coldwell Banker. During 2019’s first quarter, Realogy reported sales volume of $91 billion, one-third of which came from its NRT division that operates Corcoran and Sotheby’s.