Global property adviser Knight Frank, headquartered in London and a top-five brokerage in the United Kingdom, has promoted Joey Vlasto to regional head for the Americas to strengthen its relationships across the United States.
Knight Frank said Vlasto will coordinate its operations across the Americas, where it has three United States-based partners — Cresa, Berkadia and Douglas Elliman.
Vlasto will look to improve collaboration on the shared client mandates Knight Frank has with the partners, as well as promoting and developing its global platform across the Americas.
Knight Frank said Vlasto will work closely with William Beardmore-Gray, the senior partner and group chair, and the leadership teams of Cresa and Berkadia, and alongside Stacey Watson, partner, international residential, who leads the relationship with Douglas Elliman. The aim is to encourage deeper cross-border collaboration and help Knight Frank’s global client base navigate the United States and Americas real estate market.
For the past 16 years, Vlasto has worked at Knight Frank based in New York. He joined Knight Frank in 2007 as a global liaison responsible for international inquiries and for the management of the overseas projects of United States clients before he was promoted to partner where he oversaw Knight Frank’s United States operations. He was integral to the development and formation of its US partnerships, the company said.
Prior to joining Knight Frank, he spent three years in an international management and liaison role for BNP Paribas Real Estate with its then-United States partner.
Knight Frank formed a partnership with Douglas Elliman, one of the largest residential brokerages in the United States, in 2014 to give Knight Frank’s global client base access to specialist residential real estate expertise in the Americas.
In 2021, Knight Frank announced a partnership with Cresa, the occupier-focused commercial real estate firm, to provide an integrated global platform for corporate occupiers. That came after Knight Frank had ended a long-term partnership with Newmark in the United States. Newmark has subsequently focused on building its business in the United Kingdom via acquisitions of leading brokers Gerald Eve, Harper Dennis Hobbs and BH2.
Earlier this year, Knight Frank and Berkadia, a leader in commercial real estate and a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway and Jefferies Financial Group, announced an alliance to provide capital markets services to multimarket clients globally.
Beardmore-Gray said Vlasto’s "deep regional expertise, proven management experience and strong existing relationships with our" United States partners will be "instrumental" in strengthening the company's international partnership network.
Vlasto said the role underlines the importance of the Americas and the United States partnerships to Knight Frank and the global network. "I look forward to continuing to work with the outstanding teams at Cresa, Douglas Elliman and Berkadia, and Knight Frank colleagues around the world to consolidate our shared client relationships and generate new avenues for transatlantic business development and global integration.”
Knight Frank is rare among the United Kingdom's top five real estate brokers in that it remains a limited liability partnership as opposed to listed peers JLL, Savills, Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE.
In its last accounts it reported rising revenues in its full-year results through the end of March 2023, saying its strong partnership culture continued to set the business apart from peers.
The adviser said it was expecting to report a revenue increase to £670 million (2022: £665 million). It said its group profit of £195 million is closer to the 2021 level after the "exceptional" profits of 2022.
Founded in 1896, and headquartered in London, it has 487 offices across 53 territories and more than 20,000 staff.