CBRE Makes New Senior Hires in Los Angeles

He’s baaack!

Veteran leasing broker Tony Morales — who seemingly disappeared from the commercial real estate scene last year after working at JLL for more than 15 years — has reemerged.

The former senior managing director of JLL’s Los Angeles office joined CBRE’s advisory and transaction team in the Downtown L.A. office as a vice chairman, the highest title for producers within the company.

The Southern California office tenant representative has more than 20 years of experience advising companies in entertainment, technology, toy manufacturing, and legal and financial services.

His major deals include DirectTV (1 million square feet), Yahoo (800,000 square feet), Electronic Arts (500,000 square feet) and Disney (470,000 square feet), according to an old JLL webpage.

After his tenure at JLL ended in February 2024, Morales vanished, CoStar News reported the following month, though he continued advising clients through his own firm, Centurion Property, which he founded in 2004, according to his LinkedIn page.

Morales is one of a handful of brokers who landed at CBRE in the first quarter.

➤Stephen Somer, who specializes in office and studio investment sales transactions, is now part of the firm’s capital markets team in the West L.A. office, with the title of vice chair. Somer moved from Eastdil, where he was a managing director in the L.A. office starting in 2003.

➤Brooke Silver was hired as a senior vice president on Somer’s team. The former Eastdil vice president is based in CBRE’s Downtown Los Angeles office.

➤Also based in the DTLA office, Nicole Mihalka started as a senior vice president specializing in leasing advisory and transaction services in the creative office, entertainment and studio space, as The Real Deal reported. Mihalka came from JLL, where she worked for 12 years. Most recently she held the title of managing director. Mihalka co-represented CIM Group in a 16,000-square-foot lease in West Hollywood with the TV and film production unit of Paramount Global and Qatar-based beIN Media Group.

Cushman & Wakefield also announced a new addition to its brokerage team in the first quarter, as TRD previously reported.

➤C&W nabbed Robert Thornburgh as regional president of the southwest region, which includes Southern California, Nevada, Phoenix, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Based in the brokerage’s L.A. office, Thornburgh has been tasked with overseeing growth in client service delivery, talent development and recruiting. Thornburgh was the chief executive of Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, the 4,000-person national organization for industrial and office brokers.

Newmark hired a power duo in the firm’s L.A. office.

➤Robert Younkin was brought on board at Newmark as a vice chairman, focusing on conventional multifamily and manufactured housing debt origination. Younkin was most recently at PGIM Real Estate, where he co-led a high-volume agency origination team.

➤Garrett Meyers started at Newmark as a vice chairman with the same focus as Younkin. The pair has originated transactions totaling over $12 billion in their careers, $6.5 billion of it in the last five years.

McCourt Partners snapped up an executive.

➤Patrick Rhodes started at McCourt Partners as executive vice president of development, based in the development firm’s L.A. headquarters. Rhodes joined McCourt from Brookfield Properties, where he was senior vice president of development, overseeing western region projects totaling more than $5 billion in value.

Goldrich Kest brought on a new member of its C-suite.

➤Goldrich Kest announced Kent Crandall as the Culver City-headquartered real estate investment and asset management company’s new chief financial officer. Crandall is armed with three decades of experience in the field, including time as CFO of Lafayette Real Estate, a private equity firm managing $2 billion in assets.

Trammell Crow promoted Gabe Hungerford to principal.

➤Hungerford, based in L.A., helped secure more than 1,000 residential units in 2024. That represented a potential $650 million in new business. Hungerford joined the firm as a senior associate in 2016.