Halstead joins forces with boutique Brooklyn brokerage

Aguayo Real Estate Group will also bring 20 development projects to new firm

From left: Peggy Aguayo, Halstead President Diane Ramirez and Haus 96
From left: Peggy Aguayo, Halstead President Diane Ramirez and Haus 96

Halstead Property has acquired the assets of Aguayo Real Estate Group, a boutique Brooklyn brokerage and development firm, bringing the company’s presence in the borough up to five offices.

Peggy Aguayo, a founder of the eponymous firm, will join Halstead as an associate broker and executive vice president, and her son, Brendan Aguayo, will join the firm’s new development arm, Halstead Property Development Marketing, as a senior vice president, Halstead said in a statement today. All 14 of Aguayo Real Estate’s agents will have the opportunity to join the Manhattan-based brokerage, one of New York City’s largest.

Halstead will also take over Aguayo Real Estate’s office at 244 Fifth Avenue, at Carroll Street, in Park Slope.

“Instead of retiring, I decided to give up the stuff I am actually tired of — like paying bills and managing people — and do what I like: selling real estate,” Peggy Aguayo told The Real Deal.

She will hand over the day-to-day management duties to Halstead director of sales Trish Martin, who will run the Park Slope office. Aguayo will remain an active broker.

Brendan has developed projects such as Haus 96, the nation’s first multi-family passive house, and will bring about 20 development projects in the pipeline over to Halstead, said Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead. The projects include multi-family dwellings in Prospect Heights, Carroll Gardens, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg and Long Island City, Peggy said. The first-of-its-kind Haus 96 uses no more energy than it produces; the Prospect Heights property hit the market last September and sold all four units in a little over a week, Peggy said.

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The tie-up made sense for Halstead, Ramirez said, because the firm is always looking for new agents, and an asset purchase provided an office and personnel that were up and running.

“You have an instant presence in an entity that is known in the area and has their sphere of influence,” Ramirez said, adding that the firms share a similar history, as both were founded in 1984 by women executives — a rarity at the time.

In exchange, agents from the boutique firm gain the greater access to advertising, technology and in-house staff that comes with being part of a larger company, not to speak of the higher number of referrals agents can receive when they have 1,000 coworkers instead of 10.

The deal closed last week.

Halstead has 27 offices in New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut.