Nine months after plans for their first Los Angeles office came to light, Douglas Elliman has signed a lease for a location in Beverly Hills, Calif. The shop at 9440 Santa Monica Boulevard will open in mid-March, a representative for Elliman confirmed.
Tom Dunlap, formerly with L.A.-based brokerage John Aaroe, will head the office with the help of Cory Weiss, formerly an associate partner at Beverly Hills-based Partners Trust, the representative said. Dunlap held the title of executive vice president at John Aaroe, which boasts six locations in Southern California, according to LinkedIn.
Elliman representatives were not able to comment on how many desks the new office would accommodate, or which, if any, agents might relocate from New York.
Elliman, Manhattan’s largest residential brokerage, decided to open an L.A. office to cater to high net-worth clientele who own homes in New York, Florida, the Hamptons and the West Coast, brokerage officials said.
“We want to be where our clients want to be, and strategically Beverly Hills makes sense,” Elliman CEO Dottie Herman said in a statement to TRD. “All the stars are aligned for success.”
The new office was originally slated to open in fall of 2013; the reason for the delay was unclear.
Elliman is also on the hunt for another Beverly Hills space and is looking in the area’s so-called “Golden Triangle,” a posh section of the city clustered around fabled Rodeo Drive.
In addition to the firm’s 22 offices in New York City, Elliman has 27 offices on Long Island, nine in the Hamptons, six in Westchester County and 10 in South Florida.