Matthews Opens New Phoenix Office and Adds 100 New Brokers

Matthews Real Estate Investment Services has opened a new office in Phoenix and hired 11 new brokers in the market. The firm had plans to expand to the market before the coronavirus pandemic, and proceeded with its plans despite the recent dislocation. In addition, Matthews has continued to expand nationwide, adding 104 new brokers to the firm in markets across the US.

“Phoenix is one of the best real estate markets in the country when evaluating the number of unique owners as well as transaction velocity so because of that it had been on Matthews near term roadmap,” Kyle Matthews, chairman and CEO of Matthews Real Estate Investment Services, tells GlobeSt.com. “That timeline was accelerated after Duerk Brewer joined the firm last year as chief operating officer given Duerk and his family are based out of the Phoenix area.”

Duerk will oversee the Phoenix office as chief operating officer, while Steve Lowe and Simon Assaf—who relocated to Scottsdale from Chicago and Costa Mesa respectively—will lead the sales 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 him being located in the MSA it provided an ideal location to launch our next investment services office, while also providing an ideal location to launch our national operations center to house our growing shared services platform,” Matthews adds. “We are excited about what the Phoenix MSA has to offer for both platform and agents, given the deep talent pool as well as attractive climate and cost of living.”

While the firm has already hired 11 brokers for the new office, it is planning to add an additional 10 to 15 in the next 12 months. “We are looking to expand the office by another 10-15 agents in the next 12 months including both senior and junior agents as we look to cover the major investment sales groups and add retail leasing and debt teams here in the office,” Duerk tells GlobeSt.com. “Additionally, we anticipate another 10-15 hires on the operations side as we continue to expand and relocate our support team in Phoenix.”

While the market dynamics are changing—and uncertain—Matthews isn’t concerned about launching a new office. “Almost everyone I have spoken to in the industry is ready to be done with the lockdowns and get back to work,” says Duerk. “We are one step ahead of them. As a company, we see this as a unique opportunity to grow our business while our competitors, often publicly traded companies are being forced to cut costs and reduce staffing and support to their agents to maintain short term profitability.”