Lee & Associates Continues Expansion in New York

Sept. 3, 2013 - PRLog -- The New York office of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services (“Lee NYC”), a privately-held national commercial real estate firm, announced it formed a new affiliate company, Lee & Associates BQ|LI, LLC to service the Queens and Nassau and Suffolk County office, retail, and industrial markets. Kelly Koukou is executive managing director of the new company and one of its principal owners. Bradley Diamond also joined the new company and serves as a managing director.

“The commercial market in Queens and Nassau is about 325 million square feet,” said Koukou. “I’ve been active in that market for about 20 years and have seen it grow and attract more and more New York City firms that want offices outside the City either as satellites or to move their operations and save on rent as they improve their facilities to more modern buildings, with infrastructure capable of handling their high-tech needs.”

James Wacht, president of the Lee & Associates New York office, Lee NYC, was instrumental in the organization and expansion of Lee & Associates beyond Manhattan. “The new office is synergistic with our Manhattan brokerage business. Many of the retailers we represent in Manhattan want locations in the outer boroughs and Long Island. And many of the landlords we represent in Manhattan own buildings on Long Island. The opportunity to increase our business base in both directions could not be passed up,” said Wacht.

Koukou and Diamond were hired together and began with Lee & Associates mid-July. Koukou came from CBRE, where he was a senior vice president in its Long Island office for 13 years. Diamond joined from Coldwell Banker Commercial, where he worked on office, retail, and industrial transactions for seven years. According to Diamond, “We both are excited about the opportunity Lee offers for us to help enhance its brand in a market where it’s less well known, but in a market Kelly and I know very well. The transition has been seamless.”

They both acknowledged they were attracted to the entrepreneurial spirit of Lee NYC—and of all the Lee offices nationally. The Lee & Associates model is unique in that each office is independently owned by a group of Lee broker-investors. “It is truly a collaborative team,” said Koukou. “Lots of firms may say they are a ‘team’ but at Lee I have seen it in action and that’s why Bradley and I are so pleased to be here. One of our major charges is to expand our presence in Long Island by hiring new brokers. Lee has a national platform to support its local and regional brokers and the opportunity for referral business across the country is huge.”

The Long Island office of Lee & Associates will be run as an extension of the Lee NYC office, and brings the total number of Lee & Associates offices across the country to 49. “Now that we have Queen and Long Island as part of Lee NYC, we are looking toward Brooklyn as the next frontier to conquer,” added Wacht. “Our retail group is extremely active in Brooklyn and opening an office to handle Brooklyn retail and the growing office market in Long Island City and the outer boroughs is under serious discussion. Of course, we’ll continue building Long Island and add established brokers to that office as we move forward.”