NAI Robert Lynn, a commercial real estate firm operating out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is planning to expand into the Houston market and hire a local leadership team.
The new office is part of a joint venture with Chicago-based Hiffman National, according to a statement from NAI Robert Lynn. The move comes less than a year after NAI Global's former local affiliate decided to part ways with the global partnership and NAI brand.
NAI Global, the global platform and affiliate of NAI Robert Lynn, had a presence in Houston when it worked with Partners Real Estate. Houston-based Partners left the NAI Global platform last year after electing not to renew its affiliation with NAI Global and announced plans to expand to Dallas.
“When the Houston market became available to us within the NAI Global platform, it was an easy decision to expand there, especially since we already do business in Houston,” NAI Robert Lynn President Mark Miller said in a statement. “It also made a lot of sense to form a joint venture with Hiffman National, which has already planted a flag in Houston."
An office location in Houston for NAI Robert Lynn has not yet been selected, nor has a lease been signed. But the firm is moving forward with its plans to enter the Houston market.
The Dallas-Fort Worth commercial real estate company is looking to hire a leadership team that would recruit brokers and expand the firm’s services in Houston. An NAI Robert Lynn spokesperson said the new Houston leadership team would be offered ownership in the company, similar to the firm’s leadership in Dallas-Fort Worth.
The size of NAI Robert Lynn's proposed Houston office has not yet been determined but the brokerage expects to eventually have more than 50 employees in Houston.
“We hope to have 50-plus [employees] in the long term,” the NAI Robert Lynn spokesperson told CoStar News in an email. “We are in the process of identifying and recruiting our Houston leadership team, who will then lead and grow our operations there. Our immediate plans are to hire leaders for our office, retail, industrial and capital markets divisions.”
NAI Robert Lynn is based in Dallas but also has an office in Fort Worth that has grown 1,400% since it opened in 2011.
“What differentiates our business practice from others and allows for us to provide excellent client service is that we assign brokers and brokerage teams to specific submarkets within a broader geographic area, which gives our professionals an unsurpassed level of knowledge for each market,” said Todd Hubbard, NAI Robert Lynn’s managing director in Fort Worth.
NAI Robert Lynn got its start in 1962 as Echols & Lynn before evolving and joining the NAI Global platform in 2006. NAI Robert Lynn employs more than 100 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, including 70 brokers.
NAI Robert Lynn's proposed Houston office means NAI Global will have nine offices in Texas and more than 200 offices in the United States.
NAI Robert Lynn will be working with Chicago-based Hiffman National in the Houston market. Hiffman National already has a presence in the Bayou City and manages 4.7 million square feet of commercial property. Its Houston portfolio features 30 buildings and 419 tenants. Across the nation, Hiffman National manages more than 130 million square feet of commercial property in 27 states.
“By our estimate, 60% of our clients across the U.S. own commercial assets in Texas, and about 90% of institutional property investors in the U.S. are invested in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, so this is a great fit for our business,” Hiffman National CEO Dave Petersen said in a statement.
Petersen also serves as CEO of NAI Hiffman, a Chicago-based brokerage under the NAI Global brand.