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Brokers Leave CBRE to Open New Office in Seattle Skyscraper

By Jim Hammerand

Two brokers have left CBRE to open a Seattle office for San Diego-based Hughes Marino next week.

Owen Rice, formerly senior vice president at CBRE, joins Hughes Marino as executive vice president. His colleague, Gavin Curtis, will serve as vice president.

The 7,300-square-foot Hughes Marino office opens Wednesday on the 25th floor of the 42-story Russell Investments Center (1301 Second Ave.).

A spokeswoman said earlier this month that the office will have four operational employees plus an undisclosed number of brokers, none of whom were named at the time.

More brokers are on the way, Hughes Marino Chairman and CEO Jason Hughes said in a news release. They’ll only represent clients looking to lease or buy commercial real estate in the Puget Sound region, not landlords.

“We are excited to have found such perfect team members to open an office in the fastest-growing big city in the country,” said Hughes, who owns the firm with his wife, President and Chief Operating Officer Shay Hughes. “Owen and Gavin have deep relationships and understand the needs of businesses in the region. Backed by the values and resources of our company, we are confident they will build on their own success in the market.”

Rice has marketed space for lease in the tower at CBRE and represented clients such as Safeco Insurance, Liberty Mutual, Perkins Coie, BioMed Realty Trust, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and ProFibrix, according to his CBRE biography.

Formerly an associate at CBRE, Curtis is the son of Washington Partners co-founder Ed Curtis, who sold the independent firm to JLL last year.

Founded in 2011, Hughes Marino has opened or planned satellite offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Irvine, California. It’s the latest real estate firm to expand to Seattle to tap the booming real estate market.

“We will keep moving forward with growth plans when we find amazing teammates like Owen and Gavin,” Jason Hughes said. “We’ll continue to bring on the best professionals in target markets and ensure that we are always raising the bar of service in our industry.”

Hughes said the office has four brokers committed, including Rice and Curtis, and is in discussions with several others. Each broker will have a support team of three to four people who will also work out of the Seattle office, Hughes said.

“It’s not about having the number of brokers. It’s about having the quality of brokers,” Hughes said. “We are highly focused and very specialized in what we do, but also incredibly competent and we tend to end up with the best in the business.”

This article originally appeared in the Puget Sound Business Journal

Jason Hughes is founder of Hughes Marino, an award-winning commercial real estate company with offices across the nation. A pioneer in the field of tenant representation, Jason has exclusively represented tenants and buyers for more than 30 years. Contact Jason at 1-844-662-6635 or jason@hughesmarino.com to learn more.



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