Another commercial real estate brokerage setting up shop in Philadelphia

Holliday Fenoglio Fowler is stepping up its Philadelphia presence and is seeking to establish an office in the city.

The company focuses on commercial investment sales and lending.

That another commercial real estate brokerage has decided to set up shop in Philadelphia speaks to the health of the market and the opportunity it presents. However, for existing firms, it’s a bit of a threat that attempts to eat into the territory covered by other firms with Philadelphia offices such as Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, CBRE Inc., Colliers International, Cushman & Wakefield and others big and small.

HFF declined to comment on its intentions.

It has lured two multifamily brokers from Marcus & Millichap, Zachary S. Pierce and Mark Thomson, as one way to begin getting to a foothold in the market. Speculation has it that the firm plans to add more Philadelphia brokers to cover all categories of commercial real estate and have the ability to reach into Philadelphia’s western suburbs and South Jersey.

(As an aside, Marcus & Millichap’s Philadelphia office has seen some other recent defections. It recently saw Brad Nathanson join CBRE Inc. Earlier this year, Cory Lonberger and Ken Wellar left the firm to start their own brokerage, Rittenhouse Realty Advisors. Other brokers are reportedly looking to make the leap, too, and join other firms. Spencer Yablon, who runs the Philadelphia office of Marcus & Millchap, couldn’t be reached for comment.)

Based in New York, HFF has started to make inroads in investment sales in the Philadelphia market. It arranged the sale of the Granary, a newly constructed multifamily property in Center City, and is marketing Edgewater, another Center City apartment complex. It is also handling the sale of some of the Philadelphia Archdiocese properties such as the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary on City Avenue in Wynnewood, Pa.

HFF has offices throughout the country and in the northeast in Boston, New York and down in Washington D.C. A Philadelphia office closes a gap along the mid-Atlantic region.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal