End of an era? Maybe.
Hilton & Hyland’s sign has come off the Standard Oil building in Beverly Hills, with the high-end brokerage beginning a move to smaller offices within the city.
The relocation comes after the company’s soon-to-be former landlord, Standard Oil Investment Group, took the brokerage to court over more than $650,000 in back rent and over $65,000 in late fees before asking a judge to toss the complaint last month.
Despite the now-settled court drama, Hilton & Hyland Chair Lori Hyland told The Real Deal in a call Wednesday the move has nothing to do with the court case.
“We have a very good relationship [with the landlord] and it has absolutely nothing to do with our business,” she said of the decision to relocate.
She also slammed market chatter earlier this year that placed the brokerage on the sales block, waving off any consideration of a future deal.
“You know… we live in a very, tight community,” Hyland said. “I’ve lived in Beverly Hills all my life. I went to grammar school here. I know it very well. Everybody has something to say and it’s not necessarily true.”
The move could serve as a fresh start for the brokerage, which had inked a 10-year lease for 15,000 square feet at the Standard Oil Building at 257 North Canon Drive in 2015.
It moved into the building three years later.
Hyland said she expects the business to be shifted over to its new location at Maple Plaza at 345 North Maple Drive, and at full operations by Monday. The move shrinks Hilton & Hyland’s footprint to about 5,000 square feet.
“It’s just huge,” Hyland said of offices it leaves behind on Canon Drive, “and we don’t need so much square footage. Nobody occupies that much space right now.”
The brokerage counted over 100 agents and staffers when Hilton & Hyland — founded by Hyland’s late husband, Jeff Hyland, and Rick Hilton — moved into the Canon Drive office.
Its roster is considerably smaller after years of agent departures.
As of Wednesday, California Department of Real Estate records show an agent and broker headcount of 25 licensed professionals.
Among the more recent exits was former Hilton & Hyland President David Kramer, who decamped about a year ago to Compass, taking a six-person sales team with him. In April, former Hilton & Hyland agent Paul Salazar took three agents and an operations executive to Compass Beverly Hills. In August, broker Susan Pekich left Hilton & Hyland to join the Beverly Hills Estates.
Even with the departures, Lori Hyland said she’s intent on carrying on with the brokerage.
“I have taken Jeff’s place as chairwoman of the company– I’m not emeritus,” she said. “I’m very much here, very much running the company and very much want to bring it into the future. Our name is world famous, and we operate with the same principles as we did before of integrity, ethics and our passion for Beverly Hills.”
Read more
Residential
Los Angeles
Hilton & Hyland’s 18K sf office space hits rental market
Residential
Los Angeles
Hilton & Hyland’s landlord says it’s owed over $700K in back rent, late fees