Marcus & Millichap brokers launch new firm

Two former Marcus & Millichap brokers hope to grab market share with a new company despite the downturn. Kevin Salmon, former vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap, and Matthew Marshall, who also began his career at Marcus & Millichap, have launched Salmon and Marshall Real Estate Investments, which focuses on commercial condominiums and multi-family properties.

“I just saw that firms are going to downsize, offices are going to close and if I can keep my overhead low, I can gain some market share,” Salmon said.

The company had two multifamily properties under contract, 142 Sullivan Street and 120 MacDougal Street, as of early August. It also had exclusives on two commercial condominiums, 129 Lafayette Street and 145 Mulberry Street.

Marshall said the new development boom and subsequent bust have created opportunities for selling commercial condominiums. “In Manhattan, retail is king; it’s limited. We just saw an opportunity where these developers were going to do these condominium projects and have retail condos on the ground floor,” Marshall said. Now that the market has crashed, “what these developers can do to help pay down their construction loans is sell off the retail piece.”

Most of the deals Marshall and Salmon are seeing are distressed, Salmon said.

He and Marshall hope that doing deals now will set them up for success in the long run. “If you can establish yourself when the game’s tough,” Marshall said, “investors and people in real estate are going to look to you.”