Movers: Compass adds new agent Austin team

Compass has hired Hannah Mickey Mendez to join its Austin office.

Mendez more than doubled her sales volume since 2019 from $10M to $22M by 2021 at her previous position at Keller Williams, and is on pace to do over $25M in sales volume by the end of 2022, according to Compass.

She joins the brokerage shortly after the brokerage announced an end to cash and equity sign-on incentives for new agents in the wake of its growing financial woes.

Mendez says she’s not after a signing bonus, but rather Compass’s technology, which she believes will help her grow her business as an independent agent.

“I came to Compass because the platform and technology are the best in the industry and proven to help grow my business while freeing up more time to work directly with clients,” said Mendez. “This was a move I chose to make to scale my business further and ultimately spend more time with my family.”

San Antonio-based multifamily developer The NRP Group has appointed Christopher O’Neill as Executive Vice President of Development in Texas.

An industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in market-rate multifamily development, he will report directly to Kenneth W. Outcalt, Principal and President of Development to help further the company’s expansion in Texas and other western markets.

“We are thrilled to have Chris bring his expertise to our team and continue to follow the NRP mission to create outstanding rental communities for individuals and families, regardless of income,” said Outcalt.

A graduate of Texas A&M University with a degree in Construction Science and an MBA from the University of Houston, O’Neill was managing director at the global investment firm Hines prior to joining NRP, a company that has also been expanding its footprint in Texas in the commercial and residential sectors.

The NRP Group has a current pipeline of approximately 4,045 market-rate units underway in Texas. O’Neill will oversee the expansion of the Texas development pipeline as well as those in other western markets, specifically Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado, while also supervising all aspects of project management for the firm’s market-rate communities.

JLL has appointed Kevin Griffiths as the industrial team’s Senior Vice President in Dallas. Griffiths will join the team led by Craig Jones, and will continue to serve both users and owners of food and beverage-related industrial properties on a national basis in this new role, according to the release.

Griffiths has brokered and closed over 1.2 million square feet worth of food and beverage-related industrial deals since May 2021, valued at nearly $200 million. His main areas of expertise include tenant representation, agency leasing, and investment sales.

“We are thrilled to welcome Kevin to JLL and are excited to have a broker of his caliber to lead our expansion efforts in this fast-growing industry,” said Jones. “Kevin’s vast knowledge of the cold storage space will serve as an invaluable asset to our business and clients.”

The cold storage market in Texas is continuing to expand, especially in Dallas and Houston.

Griffiths earned a bachelor’s degree in real estate finance at Southern Methodist University, and also serves as an ambassador for its CRE Analyst Fast Track program. He joins JLL from Newmark.

JLL has also added two industry veterans to lead its Investment Sales and Advisory Team in Dallas. Michael McDonald and Jonathan Napper will be signing on as Senior Managing Directors for JLL, transitioning from Cushman & Wakefield.

McDonald and Napper have worked together for over eight years and have completed over $25 billion worth of office sales transactions in the major Sunbelt markets.

McDonald spent 18 years at Eastdil Secured prior to his tenure at Cushman, where ultimately ascended to the role of Managing Director for its Management Committee.

There, he was responsible for both the office investment sales platform across the Sunbelt and the overall direction of the firm on both a national and international basis, handling more than $70 billion of capital markets transactions during his career across office, retail, multifamily housing, and logistics assets.

Napper was also with Eastdil Secured before moving to Cushman & Wakefield, where he helped open the firm’s first office in Texas with a focus on institutional office sales and financing assignments throughout Texas and the Southeast. He has completed more than $3 billion in office, industrial, and multi-housing acquisitions and development.

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