Ramsey-Shilling property brokerage bought by Avison Young

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Prominent Los Angeles property brokerage Ramsey-Shilling Commercial Real Estate Services Inc. has been bought by Avison Young, Canada’s largest independent commercial real estate services company.

Avison Young plans to acquire more Southern California brokerages and other real estate companies in the U.S. in the months ahead, Managing Director Neil Resnick said. Resnick, a broker formerly with Grubb & Ellis, opened Avison Young’s first Los Angeles office in August.

The acquisition of Ramsey-Shilling for an undisclosed amount added 23 employees, including 18 brokers. Over the past three years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 26 offices including 11 in the United States, Resnick said. It has more than 900 employees.

“This is the beginning of what will be many” more branches, he said. “We are actively looking at other brokerages and individuals to join us.”

Ramsey-Shilling has had a high profile in Hollywood, where its brokers negotiated such deals in recent years as the sale and lease of the landmark Capitol Record building and the sales of the former ABC Studios, El Capitan office building, Palladium night club and the former Frederick’s of Hollywood building.

Other sales brokered by Ramsey-Shilling include the Rox-San office building in Beverly Hills and the Omni Saigon Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

“The vision for Avison Young is to have Southern California be one of its biggest and most important markets, if not its single most important market,” said Christopher Bonbright, who was chief executive of Ramsey-Shilling and is now an Avison Young principal. “We want to be absolutely competitive” representing landlords and tenants.

Being part of a larger organization should help land clients, Bonbright said, because Ramsey-Shilling sometimes lost jobs to large international firms such as CBRE Group Inc. and Jones Lang LaSalle.

Other former Ramsey-Shilling brokers joining Avison Young as principals are Mark Evanoff, John Tronson and Michael Dettling.

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-- Roger Vincent