Eklund Gomes Team’s Hunie Kwon and Grace Steel jump to Compass

Douglas Elliman’s top-producing team just lost a pair of veteran New York City agents.

Hunie Kwon and Grace Steel have left Elliman’s Eklund Gomes Team to join Compass, where they will aim to build out a boutique team of six to eight agents, Kwon told The Real Deal.

The two brokers and childhood friends from Indiana have worked together for much of their careers, including at Elliman and previously at JC DeNiro and Associates. Kwon had been at Elliman since 2009, while Steel joined the brokerage from Compass in 2018.

“I’m loyal to a fault,” Kwon said. “There were opportunities where if I kind of look back in retrospect, maybe it would have been better to leave a little bit sooner.”

Kwon said that Compass’ technology, along with seeing other agents move to the company, inspired his own transition.

“I think the Compass technology is like using an iPhone versus an Android,” Kwon said. “It’s just very easy to use and it syncs up.”

Kwon said the opportunity to build his own team allows him to move out of the “shadows” and run his own business.

Led by Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes — both of “Million Dollar Listing” fame — the Eklund Gomes Team handled over $4.5 billion in transactions last year, according to its website, and claimed the No. 1 spot on TRD’s list of New York City’s top residential listing agents in 2020.

“We want to level up into this year,” said Steel. “I think the New Year is always a good time for a fresh chapter.”

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