Stream Realty Partners, steadily growing across the United States, is looking to make a statement in a major Sun Belt city in recruiting several veteran landlord representatives from global rivals.
The Dallas-based firm said it added Glenn Kolker, Preston Menning, Bryan Heller and Peter McGuone as managing directors in its Atlanta office this week. Kolker and Menning joined Stream from Cushman & Wakefield, and Heller and McGuone previously worked at CBRE.
Stream also hired Parker Welton, who worked with Heller at CBRE, as a vice president on the team.
"Boom! We just took another major step forward today — both for Atlanta and nationally!" Preston Young, Stream's national head of office investor services, said in a LinkedIn post.
For Stream, the addition of Kolker and Menning, who had been at Cushman & Wakefield and firms it acquired for more than a decade, and Heller and McGuone, who worked at CBRE and firms it acquired for 15 years, sends a signal to the Atlanta market that it is willing to be aggressive and hire away well-established brokers to expand its business.
Stream had established the goal of creating a formidable office leasing team in Atlanta, and the addition of Kolker, Menning, Heller, McGuone and Welton is a big step toward reaching it, said Simon Arpiarian, executive managing director and partner of Stream Atlanta.
Stream has been growing aggressively over the past couple of years by adding brokers from Northern Virginia to greater Los Angeles.
In Atlanta, the former CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield brokers who jumped to Stream had been talking about joining together for about a year. It began with a discussion about what the landlord reps believed they needed to continue being successful as occupiers' office needs evolved during the pandemic.
McGuone said the group considered starting a boutique shop but ultimately decided Stream would offer them the opportunity to run and expand its office leasing group while having the support of a growing brokerage.
"We've been told we'll have the ability to add the resources we need," such as hiring a marketing and research team member and adding brokers as needed, McGuone said in an interview.
That's typically not the case at global shops, he said. "I don't think they have the ability to be quite as nimble," McGuone said.
Stream also offers the brokers the chance to become partners and gain an ownership stake.
Kolker's and Menning's names are attached to several Class A office towers they lease and market. In 2021, CoStar Group, publisher of CoStar News, named Kolker as one of Atlanta's top office leasing brokers.
Heller and McGuone, business partners for 18 years, have been marketing office space at several high-properties in the greater Atlanta area, including Perimeter Summit in Brookhaven.
Heller and McGuone have known Kolker and Menning, who played Little League baseball with McGuone, for more than a decade. It quickly became apparent they would work well together, Heller said.
“It became clear that we complemented each other with our client roster, experience, and specialized skill sets," Heller said in a statement.
Their move from global brokerages to a national firm was not without some concern, McGuone said.
"We were worried about what the client reaction would be," he said.
However, McGuone said, most of their clients have told the group they're cool with the team's move to Stream because the clients have worked with the firm in other markets.
"That's been a surprise, finding out the reach Stream has," he said.