The residential real estate market has been hurting, and in this financial crisis, some residential firms have decided to diversify their business. Residential brokerages Halstead Property and DJK Residential have recently opened commercial divisions and on Long Island, Weichert Realtors Ferreri-Gromus in Babylon also opened a new commercial and industrial division.
Halstead and DJK announced they were entering into the commercial world in the same week, but DJK said they have been doing commercial deals for some time.
“We have been working in the commercial market, and to make it a more formal division, we announced it to develop it even more,” said Phyllis Pezenik, vice president and managing director of brokerage services at DJK.
Pezenik said the firm is training some of its brokers who want to be involved in the commercial market and is also looking to bring in people with commercial experience.
Halstead Property opened an investment sales division and hired John Goldman, a former executive managing director at Murray Hill Properties, to run the group. Goldman told Crain’s last month that Halstead’s expansion isn’t a way to make up for the residential market slowdown but rather a way to capitalize on new real estate opportunities.
Weichert Realtors Ferreri-Gromus said it brought William Maurer on board as associate broker to join the new division. Maurer’s background includes representing clients with retail, office and investment properties, strip-mall leasing and property management.