Jeff Deweese did not return a telephone call for comment about his departure as executive vice president and managing director. Locally, Grubb & Ellis won't discuss the exit except to say that Deweese will be replaced while corporate also did not respond to a call for comment. For now, Randy Moore, executive vice president and managing director in Houston and San Antonio, is in charge of the office, with Gary Lindsey, senior vice president in Dallas, helping out on an interim basis.

"There is no timeline to replace him," Moore tells GlobeSt.com. "There will be an orderly search for the right person." That search will be done inside and outside the corporate walls, he adds.

With days of Deweese's departure, Mike Burch, Sam Lewis, Pete Hartnett and Brent Boone jumped to Hendricks & Partners. It was practically a deja vu of the scene two years ago when Deweese left the top slot at Marcus & Millichap and subsequently wooed the four from the fold to join him at Grubb & Ellis.

Lewis, speaking for the group, says "it was a good time for us to make the move." And once again, they're with an old friend: Don Hendricks, chairman and CEO, a one-time exec at Marcus & Millichap.

The multifamily quartet has logged $1.5 billion in transactions in their careers. Burch has 22 years in the multifamily industry, with 13 years spent as managing director in Dallas for Marcus & Millichap. Lewis has 19 years in the business; Hartnett, 10 years; and Boone, four years.

The Dallas departure is just another round in the changing of the guard in the New York City-based brokerage house's multifamily divisions. Atlanta and Denver too has seen top names exit the multifamily ranks lately, but Dallas has been wiped out in the latest round. Just four months ago, the office lost its top producers, Don Ostroff and Will Balthrope, to Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc.

Ironically, the hit comes at the same time that Grubb & Ellis positioned Keith Misner, head of the firm's Multi Housing Investment Group, as executive managing director for a newly formed Financial Services Group. Marshall Brantmeier in Dallas was tapped to lead the central region for the new group.

Moore emphasizes that the Dallas multifamily team will be rebuilt. "There was a difference in philosophy," he says of the quartet's exit from the now 30-broker office. "They've chosen to be part of a group that does only multi-housing. I do wish them well."

Hendricks & Partners' president Brent Long tells GlobeSt.com that he now has his Dallas team right where he wants it--a team of nine that he feels is positioned to lead the marketplace. "We took a good team and rounded out the team," he says. "At this point, we feel we've got the best team in the market."

In addition to Grubb & Ellis' four, Hendricks hired Curtis Stogsdill of Dallas-based FirstWorthing. The five newcomers join Michael Lewis, George Deuillet III, Thomas Emerson Burns and Tom Warren, all now unpacking in their new office at Centura Tower at 14185 Dallas Parkway.

"We just made a full commitment to the state of Texas," Long says. There are no changes planned for Hendricks' other Texas offices. It has eight advisers in Houston, four in San Antonio and two in Austin.