Matthews Real Estate Investment Services hasopened a new office in Phoenix and hired 11 new brokers in themarket. The firm had plans to expand to the market before thecoronavirus pandemic, and proceeded with its plans despite therecent dislocation. In addition, Matthews has continued to expandnationwide, adding 104 new brokers to the firm in markets acrossthe US.

"Phoenix is one of the best real estate markets in the countrywhen evaluating the number of unique owners as well as transactionvelocity so because of that it had been on Matthews near termroadmap," Kyle Matthews, chairman and CEO of Matthews Real EstateInvestment Services, tells GlobeSt.com. "That timeline wasaccelerated after Duerk Brewer joined the firmlast year as chief operating officer given Duerk and his family arebased out of the Phoenix area."

Duerk will oversee the Phoenix office as chief operatingofficer, while Steve Lowe and Simon Assaf—who relocated toScottsdale from Chicago and Costa Mesa respectively—will lead thesales team and oversee net lease retail, shopping centers,apartments, industrial and healthcare asset classes in the market."Not only is Duerk a long-time Phoenix native, but also, with himbeing located in the MSA it provided an ideal location to launchour next investment services office, while also providing an ideallocation to launch our national operations center to house ourgrowing shared services platform," Matthews adds. "We are excitedabout what the Phoenix MSA has to offer for both platform andagents, given the deep talent pool as well as attractive climateand cost of living."