Savills’ planned acquisition of Eastdil Secured, one of the biggest and likely most consequential in the real estate advisory business, isn’t making Bob Knakal rethink his decision to go out on his own.
“Independence is a great thing,” said Knakal, the heavyweight New York real estate broker credited with selling more commercial buildings than any other single agent in the city, in an email interview with CoStar News. “Large firms offer more services, but that creates all types of conflicts of interest. There are pros and cons to everything.… As for selling, I did it once and that was a great, life‑changing event for me.… But once is enough!! Never again!!”
This week, London-based Savills said it entered a definitive agreement to acquire all of Eastdil Secured's equity for more than $1.1 billion.
Eastdil, a global real estate investment bank, has earned a reputation for handling high-profile office, retail and hospitality property investment sales. Late last year, it brokered the sale of the San Francisco Hilton Hotel Complex, which contains the Hilton San Francisco Union Square and Parc 55 hotels and a combined 2,945 keys.
Knakal said he does not think the Savills-Eastdil transaction will pressure other independent capital markets firms to seek partners.
In 2024, Knakal launched his own investment sales firm, BKREA, following an abrupt departure as JLL’s head of New York investment sales. A decade earlier, he sold Massey Knakal, the firm he started with former partner Paul Massey Jr., to Cushman & Wakefield. After that sale, Knakal worked at Cushman until 2018 before moving to JLL.
As for Savills’ deal to acquire Eastdil Secured, Knakal said it “adds another service line to Savills without much obvious redundancy” in New York.
“This is more of a merger than consolidation,” Knakal told CoStar. “I don’t see it changing the competitive landscape in NY materially.”
From a cultural standpoint, Knakal said “a big if” is whether Savills will alter how Eastdil operates internally — particularly around compensation.
“I always thought the traditional model was much better for brokers but folks who are used to getting a paycheck get comfortable with that,” he said. “That one will be interesting. If the Savills platform did not have a lot of capital markets folks, they could conceivably be on two different comp models although that could get a bit hairy.”
Eastdil Secured will continue to operate its existing business model within Savills’ as its real estate investment bank, Savills said. Savills Chief Executive Officer Simon Shaw told Bloomberg News he doesn’t plan to change Eastdil’s brand or compensation structure or pursue redundancies.