Greysteel Plans to Hit $100M+ in L.A.

LOS ANGELES—Greysteel, an East Coast-based brokerage and capital markets firm focused on the middle markets and bridge lending for private and institutional investors, has opened its first West Coast office in Los Angeles. The move is part of the firm's national expansion, and will be its seventh office nationwide. Although Greysteel does not set specific volume goals—because its business plan is always client driven—Ari Firoozabadi, the company's co-founder and president, says that he anticipates placing several $100 million out of the Los Angeles market.

“Some firms put out volume goals, but the reality is that if we sell the whole asset, that is 100% of the capital, it is going to be a much larger transaction than if we were going to recycle the equity capital, which is 25% to 40% of the transaction,” Firoozabadi tells GlobeSt.com. “From our perspective, we are less focused on the volume and more focused on the individual client's transactional goals. We are not necessarily looking to put out $500 million in capital, although we expect to achieve a few hundred million in transactional activity over the next 12 months in the Los Angeles MSA. We believe that is reasonable and achievable.”

The firm has tapped industry veteran Joshua Ross to lead the new L.A. office. Ross has a wealth of experience as a capital markets advisor and in multifamily sales in the Los Angeles area. “Joshua is of like-mind and a leader in the marketplace,” says Firoozabadi, adding that Ross' experience will help the firm achieve its goals. “Joshua has a thriving practice with middle market investors, and in the last 24 months, he has both imported and exported capital in and out of the marketplace on a national level. There is a great deal of synergy between Joshua's practice and ours.”

Greysteel chose L.A. as its first West Coast destination because it is a “top-tier market” with “a ton of capital flowing in and out” of the city. However, under its rapid expansion, Firoozabadi says that they could be looking to open another office in the Bay Area soon. According to Ross, the firm has been well received in the L.A. market and has already grown its customer base.

The firm has a unique structure in that they do no encourage inter-office competition. “What really makes us unique is that we work on a fully integrated and collaborative basis with a single-source CRM, which is the skeleton to our system through use of the most up-to-date and secure cloud based technology,” says Firoozabadi. “In Los Angeles, there is a lot of competition, not only between firms but also between people within a firm. What is unique about our platform is that we do not compete our people internally. As a result, when we speak to a client or a prospective client, we speak to them with one voice.”