Avison Young opens new U.S. Capital-regional office

Avison Young took a major step in its U.S. expansion today, opening its new Capital-region office in Washington, D.C.
The office will serve as the headquarters for many new Avison Young locations in the Metro D.C. region, spanning Maryland and Northern Virginia. It becomes Toronto-based Avison Young’s second U.S. office, along with Chicago.
Keith Lipton, who has more than 20 years of commercial real estate industry experience in the D.C. region, has been recruited as regional managing director.
Lipton,also appointed an Avison Young principal, most recently served as executive vice-president and managing director of Washington, D.C., offices for Grubb & Ellis. He has also held executive posts with CB Richard Ellis, Insignia/ESG, and Jones Lang LaSalle.
Meanwhile, Margaret Donkerbrook joins Avison Young’s new D.C. office as vice-president of U.S. research, and Sarah Peyton has signed on as regional operations manager. Like Lipton, both were formerly with Grubb & Ellis in D.C.
Donkerbrook joined Grubb in 2006 as managing director after holding executive posts with CBRE, Jones Lang Wooton and Jones Lang LaSalle. Peyton has held management posts with Grubb and CBRE since 2003.
Over the past three years, says Avison Young chair and CEO Mark Rose, Lipton, Donkerbrook and Peyton led the turnaround of Grubb & Ellis in the DC Metro region, enabling it to become the firm’s top-performing office in 2008 and so far in 2009. During the turnaround, Lipton and his team recruited 60 per cent of the brokerage professionals and 80 per cent of the total staff in the D.C. Metro region, added multiple service lines and expanded into the Baltimore market.
Lipton, Donkerbrook and Peyton will also play a crucial role recruiting brokers and staff for the new D.C. office and the surrounding region. Rose, a former Grubb & Ellis CEO and Jones Lang LaSalle COO and CFO of the Americas who has not hesitated to recruit former colleagues, says Avison Young is already actively recruiting senior brokers and executives to fill its service needs in the D.C. region.
It’s all part of the company’s plans for further acquisitions in the U.S. and globally.