Top Eastdil broker in LA heads to NY to boost capital markets team

One of Eastdil Secured’s top brokers in Los Angeles is moving to the East Coast, to boost the firm’s investment sales and debt placement teams in New York.

Jonathan Firestone, a managing director, has worked at Eastdil’s L.A. office for the past 18 years. He is a member of the management committee and expected to start in the Manhattan office in January, the company confirmed.

Firestone moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to join Secured Capital as an associate; Eastdil bought the company five years later. The move to New York will be something of a return for Firestone, who began his career there, in the real estate finance division of Credit Suisse.

In an interview Wednesday, Eastdil President D. Michael Van Konynenburg said, “we were looking at people to further drive the firm’s growth as part of our new structure. Jon started his career in New York, and raised his hand for the opportunity to move to New York to grow the firm’s business locally, nationally and globally.” 

Van Konynenburg said Eastdil’s New York team has advised on over $10 billion of financing and sales of New York City assets this year.

Eastdil has been a leader in New York’s investment sales market, but has undergone dramatic change  in the last six months. In June, Guggenheim Investments and Singapore sovereign-wealth fund Temasek Holdings agreed to a management-led buyout of Eastdil from Wells Fargo.

Eastdil ranked third in The Real Deal’s most recent ranking of top investment-sales firms in New York, brokering about $5.9 billion worth of deals. The firm had taken the top spot on the ranking seven years in a row from, 2010 to 2016.

He will work alongside managing directors Gary Phillips and Will Silverman. Silverman joined the company in June, and Phillips has been there a year.

Real Estate Alert first reported the move.