PHOENIX-Jones Lang LaSalle's local office is close to completing its personnel expansion goals with its recent hire of Dave Seeger, Karsten Peterson and Mark Gustin from Cushman & Wakefield of Arizona Inc. The trio is the third team to join the Phoenix JLL office within the past two weeks.

Seeger, Peterson and Gustin join the firm as managing directors, coming aboard with team member Matt Gandolfo, who is an associate. The team's goal: To expand JLL's presence in the Southeast Valley in submarkets including Tempe, Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert.

"They're the dominant office team in the Southeast Valley. They focused on that submarket years ago, when no one else was interested," explains Dennis Desmond, JLL/Phoenix's senior managing director. "Now that the area has grown into a mature market, they're considered the 'go-to' team there." Desmond says the team is being encouraged to take on the airport and Scottsdale submarkets as well. The team's focus is office and back office leasing and investment sales.

The newcomers join recent JLL hires Bo Mills and Mark Detmer, who specialize in real estate investment sales, and industrial leasing experts Pat Harlan, Steve Sayre and Kyle Westfall. Desmond tells GlobeSt.comthat the recent expansion fulfils the office's original growth plan when Jones Lang LaSalle acquired Staubach Co. during the summer of 2008. "The company gradually grew into a full-service platform and we made a few significant hires a few years ago," he adds. "We got into the industrial and landlord leasing side, as well as the capital markets."

Desmond notes that the recent hires will broaden the local office's strength both in terms of sector and submarket geography. "We haven't moved hastily on this," he says. "We wanted to find extraordinary people and great brokers, and that's not always an easy task. We're excited about what we have; the quality of the individuals who have come over is top drawer."

The recent spate of hirings means there isn't a whole lot more to be done in terms of personnel; Desmond says there are just three or four empty desks at the JLL office. "If the right opportunity presents itself, we'll always consider it," he adds. "But we've completed hte majority of the growth we'd planned for."