UPDATED, 4:15 p.m., March 5: First, top sales agent Fabienne Lecole left William Raveis NYC after just five months to return to the Corcoran Group. Now, colleagues Julia Boland and Maria Wall have followed in her footsteps, in a move that robs the startup brokerage of its headline agents.
Boland and Wall started at Corcoran on Thursday, representatives for the firm told The Real Deal. Both were at William Raveis for five months. Boland was previously a top new development broker at Halstead Property, and was meant to launch William Raveis’ new development division. In a statement, she said that “the Corcoran brand will enable me to develop my business, expand my team and provide superior service to new development clients.”
Wall, a native of Sweden, worked at Corcoran before William Raveis.
While it’s been a busy season of broker moves, it’s worth noting the departure of Boland and Wall, particularly on the heels of a similar move by Lecole. Boland and Lecole were among the brokerage’s key hires when William Raveis, a titan in the Northeast, launched in New York City last spring.
Reached by phone, William Raveis NYC’s managing directors Paul Purcell and Kathy Braddock downplayed the impact of the departures.
“It is no blow whatsoever,” said Purcell, who previously ran Rutenberg Realty and Douglas Elliman with Braddock. “They were not here long enough to have really contributed to my bottom line.” He added: “If someone is unhappy and doesn’t understand the context of a startup, they should leave.”
Purcell and Braddock said William Raveis’ New York venture is still a startup, and stressed that any new venture is bound to experience growing pains.
“Rome wasn’t built overnight,” Braddock said.
They were emphatic about William Raveis’ commitment to New York. “We ‘ain’t going anywhere,” Braddock said. “Bill Raveis didn’t build the business for 30 years to not have a New York City office.”
Meanwhile, Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman told TRD in an interview in her office Thursday that Corcoran’s door is always open, and that agents are always welcome to “come home”– something she’s repeated frequently in recent months.
After weathering a series of departures last year, Corcoran has welcomed back several key players in addition to Lecole and Wall. Also joining them this week is Susan Singer, a former Corcoran agent who joined Town Residential in 2011.
Bill Cunningham rejoined Corcoran in January after several months as president of Trump International Realty, and Andrea Wahl Lucas, rejoined Corcoran after a stint at Douglas Elliman.