UPDATED, Dec. 11, 2:45 p.m.: When one door closes, another one opens.
Kidder Mathews is proving the old adage with its recruitment of 21 former Charles Dunn brokers to join its new office in Century City, the company said Monday.
The commercial real estate firm’s expansion comes less than two months after Charles Dunn, a competitor, closed its brokerage division. In an email sent out to employees in early November, Patrick Conn, chief operating officer at Charles Dunn, said the decision to close up shop was to avoid “further expenses and potential losses.”
Located in the Watt Plaza, the new Kidder office will be led by commercial real estate veteran Darrell Levonian. Prior to joining Kidder, Levonian served as an executive managing officer at Charles Dunn. He was also in talks to purchase the brokerage division for several months before the shop closed altogether, The Real Deal previously reported.
Kidder also recruited Charles DeSantis, Tanel Harunzade, Kyle Gulock, Justin Mendelson, and Janet Neman as partners and executive vice presidents. It also hired 15 additional senior brokers.
The new Century City office comes on the heels of the firm opening new offices in Downtown Los Angeles and the Tri-Cities region.
Kidder recruited four new brokers — John Anthony, Chris Steck, Chris Giordano, and George Crawford — to join the new office in Figueroa at Wilshire building. Another 22 other brokers also relocated there.
In El Segundo, the commercial brokerage hired Marc Bonando, Luke Staubitz, Harvey Beesen, and Andrew Dilfer to join the existing team. In October, the firm had poached Bill Boyd, Linda Lee, Scott Unger and Lauren Nesmith — a top-producing team at Charles Dunn — to join the firm’s new Glendale office.