Canadians invade New York’s real estate business with bags and bags of money

Two Canadian firms are mounting an invasion of Manhattan’s competitive commercial brokerage business. Toronto-based investment bank Brookfield Financial dangled seven-figure signing bonuses in front Eastern Consolidated’s Eric Anton and Ronald Solarz to lure the high-profile brokers into joining the team. Meanwhile, Avison Young, an independently owned brokerage also headquartered in Toronto, is working out of a temporary office at the Intercontinental Hotel on Park Avenue and already has Gregory Kraut, a former CBRE Group broker, on board. Word is Avison would like to hire some more big names—and may even be willing to cough up company equity to get them. New York’s real estate biz is known to be rather clubby, but it would seem Brookfield and Avison (and at least one other Canadian firm) have learned that the way into a city’s heart is through its wallet. Read the entire story [Wall Street Journal] »