Jeff Lyon is the CEO of Kidder Matthews.

LOS ANGELES—No one is taking their eye off the Southern California market. Last week, two brokerage firms announced efforts to expand here to both better serve clients and to attract talent. Most significantly, Kidder Matthews merged with Hager, gaining a strong foothold in the Southern California market and becoming the largest privately owned brokerage firm on the West Coast. Avison Young also announced an expansion of its Tri-Cities market office and plans to continue to expand in the Southern California market.

“There are a lot of clients that would have done business with me if we were in the [Southern California] market,” Jeff Lyon, CEO of Kidder Matthews, tells GlobeSt.com about the firm's new presence in the Southern California market. “Now we can pursue those relationships because we have the resources and we have the capabilities that we didn't have before.”

Lyon notes the importance of establishing a local presence in a market as a reason why growing its presence here was important. “At the end of the day, it is the local people that are going to make the difference,” says Lyon. “I believe that Rob and Tom and their team are going to make a significant difference in our ability to not only sustain where we are but to help us grow, especially with their client base.”

Most importantly, however, is the ability to recruit talent, and both Kidder Matthews and Avison Young are building strong platforms that will attract the right people to the firms. “As we were growing an expanding in Southern California, we were talking to talent from publicly traded companies, and they asked why they would come over if we were just building it to sell it,” says Lyon. “We had to have a succession plan in place and that we had a model that was stable. Other companies might have a lot of money, but we have such a broad base of ownership that no one is ever going to give up what we already have. We have really insolated ourselves, and we are trying to grow a unique business model that is desired in the marketplace today as all of these consolidations are going on.”

Instant Insights /

The Importance of Gaining SoCal Market Share

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