Lee & Associates announces Midwest expansion

The largest broker-owned commercial real estate firm in North America is expanding.

Lee & Associates announced it was opening a new office in Kansas City that will specialize in representing office landlords, Connect CRE reported. The firm plans to grow its offerings by recruiting teams that represent office, retail and industrial clients.

The Kansas City team, which will be led by Brent Roberts, will include Max Lapke as well as an operations and marketing team.

“We see Kansas City and the region as being very strategic, and we’ve identified a leading team in the market to provide leadership as we further grow our presence,” Jeffrey Rinkov, CEO of Lee & Associates, said in a statement about the expansion.

It’s not the only brokerage that’s expanding its footprint.

On the West Coast, Tyrone McKillen will be bringing his team to Official, the Side-backed residential brokerage Tal and Oren Alexander launched over the summer. McKillen, who banked several big-ticket transactions for Compass, is taking over $500 million in listings with him, in addition to Plus Real Estate Group, his team of eight.

The move represents the latest bold-faced L.A. broker to ditch Compass for greener pastures. In November, top-ranked broker Aaron Kirman left Compass to launch his own shop, the Aaron Kirman Group, in partnership with Christie’s International Real Estate.

In other news, in New York City, Douglas Elliman’s Eklund-Gomes Team signed a five-year deal to re-commit to the brokerage. The 90-person team led by Fredrik Eklund and John Gomes has reeled in more than $4 billion in transactions across Elliman’s 13 markets, the brokerage said. The team previously claimed the top spot in The Real Deal’s 2021 ranking of top Manhattan brokers, with $492 million in sell-side deals.

The team’s signing with their legacy firm bucks a series of big-name brokers who have struck out on their own, calling into question the value of a large firm in the age of social media.

— Victoria Pruitt