UPDATED, MAY 14, 2021, 5:45 p.m.: Corcoran Group is trying to cement its presence as a major luxury brokerage in Los Angeles with a swanky new office in Beverly Hills.
Franchise affiliate Corcoran Global Living is opening a new 5,000-square-foot office at 9647 Brighton Way this summer, The Real Deal has learned.
“We felt that it was time for new blood, new energy and a new face in the market,” Nick Spirtos, the brokerage’s L.A. district manager, said in an interview.
While the company has offices in Manhattan Beach and Los Feliz, the new Beverly Hills office represents Corcoran’s lofty ambitions in the L.A. luxury residential market — a space dominated by local firms like Westside Estate Agency and Hilton & Hyland, as well as Compass, another New York transplant.
The firm is hoping the new office will serve upwards of 200 agents, according to Spirtos. Corcoran currently has around 60 of its nearly 900 Southern California agents working on Westside and Beverly Hills deals.
Corcoran’s new office was previously a boutique owned by Kyle Richards — the wife of The Agency CEO Mauricio Umansky.
Repurposing retail space is an attractive solution for companies that are shying away from the traditional office model, JLL broker Houman Mahboubi, who worked on the deal, said. The space was listed almost six months before the pandemic hit and has been vacant since.
Corcoran Global Living first moved into the L.A. market in November, when it acquired local brokerage PLG Estates, absorbing its 200 agents and its founder Peter Lorimer, who now works with Spirtos to lead L.A. operations.
Lorimer wants the new Beverly Hills office to be the “beating heart” of Corcoran’s Southern California operations, he told TRD on Friday.
Marking the Corcoran brand’s first foray into the West Coast, Corcoran Global Living was started earlier last year by Michael Mahon, the former president of Irvine-based brokerage First Team Real Estate.
At the time of the PLG acquisition, Mahon told TRD that Corcoran Global Living “will be in the top three by market share in L.A.” by the end of this year.
Update: This story has been updated to include a comment from Peter Lorimer.