Residential, Commercial Brokerages Expand in Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley’s strong home sales and appeal to office workers are attracting attention from both residential and commercial brokerages, which have expanded there of late.

San Francisco-based Corcoran Icon announced this week that it has opened its first Palo Alto location in Town & Country Village, right across the street from Stanford University. The new 1,000-square-foot office will serve about 35 resi agents, and will cater to its existing agents who serve the Silicon Valley market, as well as any newly recruited agents in Palo Alto, according to the company.

Managing Broker Benyam Mulugeta, who is based in Palo Alto, will head the office, along with Icon Sales Manager and Partner Susan LaRagione. It will be located in the Trader Joe’s-anchored shopping center’s Building 5, which also recently snagged the second location of trendy San Francisco restaurant Horsefeather.

Residential, Commercial Brokerages Expand in Silicon Valley — Corcoran Icon Sales Manager and Partner Susan LaRagione and Managing Broker Benyam Mulugeta with their office at Town & Country Village (Google Maps, Anita Barcsa Photography)

The new office adds to a Peninsula presence that already includes an office in San Mateo and Los Gatos, as well as two offices in San Jose. LaRagione called the Palo Alto addition a “strategic move to capitalize on the existing success in the area and a proactive step to spur additional business.”

Home prices in the “Stanford Circle” — Palo Alto, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Atherton, Woodside, Portola Valley and Menlo Park — are among the highest in the Bay Area and are still trending higher, according to an August report from Compass. Median sales price appreciation has risen 32 percent since 2019 and is up 6 percent in the last year. The first half median sales price was $4.1 million, compared to about half that value for San Mateo County overall. Luxury home sales in the circle, which in this case means those above $5 million, were up 38 percent January-to-July 2024, compared to the first seven months of 2023.

On the commercial side, JLL has joined the trend of lease signings at Santana Row and held a soft opening of its new offices in the San Jose development last week. The lease for the 5,400-square-foot space has a three-year term and is expected to serve about 20 brokers as well as support services in research, project management and property management, according to Kirsten Grado, managing director at JLL, who is heading up the new office.

JLL has done business in the South Bay for decades and has a strong market share, she said. The office is intended to expand that share further, better support existing clients and brokers, and recruit more.

JLL added to the opening celebrations by announcing four new agents to help fill the space.

Alex Lagemann left an executive director role at Cushman & Wakefield’s San Jose office to take a senior managing director title at JLL. Prior to getting into real estate in 2017, he was a musician who toured internationally with the alternative band Radical Something, which he co-founded with two fellow UC Berkeley football players in 2011. He also starred on the Fox primetime dating show “Coupled” in 2017.

Sean Toomey became a managing director at JLL after 18 years at Colliers. He was a vice president at Trammell Crow for six years before that. He serves as a board member for the Association of Silicon Valley Brokers and chairman emeritus at the Silicon Valley Capital Club.

Bryte Bellotti is also a new JLL managing director, coming on board after a 10-year run at Newmark Real Estate, where she held the same title. She has previously worked in business development for tech companies like Box.com and specializes in life science and R&D leases.

Maryjane Archuleta joined JLL as an associate after less than two years at Colliers and was previously the marketing and business development director at Iron Construction in San Jose. She also has a leadership role in the Silicon Valley branch of the Commercial Real Estate Women business network.

Grado said in addition to the four new agents, there are “pending recruits” the firm hopes to announce after the new office formally launches next month. She called the space a “tremendous boost to recruiting as well as retention” and said that Santana Row is “convenient from a commute standpoint” as well as a “beautiful, walkable community rich with amenities.”