Hawaii Commercial Real Estate joins Elite Pacific – Pacific Business News

Hawaii Commercial Real Estate founder Jamie Brown has merged his Honolulu-based commercial real estate firm with Elite Pacific LLC, parent of the Corcoran Pacific Properties residential real estate firm.

Brown, who founded Hawaii Commercial Real Estate nearly 20 years ago, remains president of the firm, which is also retaining its name. The firm’s team of eight agents joined Elite, we well as two agents on Hawaii Island. 

Brown told Pacific Business News that he had started to talk to Paul Mayer, Elite Pacific’s co-founder and executive chairman, about a year ago about possibly merging the two companies and that the timing seemed right this year.

While Brown, who’s known as “Downtown Jamie Brown,” is known for his expertise in the Honolulu office market, his firm has offered services in retail, industrial and investment properties as well. 

Over the summer, Hawaii Commercial Real Estate ended its long-time relationship as the exclusive listing firm for Pacific Guardian Center in Downtown Honolulu, which freed up time and energy for the firm. 

“That project had become a smaller and smaller portion of our business and was consuming more and more of our time and resources,” he said. 

Brown also moved the firm’s office from the ground floor of the Pacific Guardian Center to its Bishop Street neighbor, the Davies Pacific Center. 

With the Elite Pacific merger, Brown said a lot of the functions of running a small business, including human resources and accounting, will now be handled by the Elite Pacific team. He said his firm will also be able to take advantage of Elite Pacific’s support team for transactions, marketing and the website. 

“What it does just for Hawaii Commercial Real Estate is it allows me to focus more on being a deal maker and a rainmaker and takes a lot of running a small business off my shoulders,” Brown said.

He also expects there to be some synergy between Elite Pacific’s some 200-plus residential agents whose clients may also have commercial real estate needs. 

“We’re already seeing some commercial deal flow from being with them already,” he said. “We’ve been doing more investment sales; this will help us do even more.”

Brown, who now answers to Elite Pacific President and CEO Anton Steenman, said he also liked the firm’s approach to managing its agents.

“They’re really entrepreneurial and they seem to be rally focused on creating an environment that really helps their employees and agents be their best,” he said. “I felt we would be more successful being part of a bigger team.

“The idea is we should be able to grow Hawaii Commercial Real Estate a lot.”

Meanwhile, Elite Pacific recently hired Milo Spindt, former chairman of the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corp. and the Hawaii Public Housing Authority, as broker-in-charge of its Elite Pacific Property Management division.

Elite Pacific’s business also includes Elite Pacific Vacation Rentals, referrals-only brokerage Success Partners Real Estate and Indigo Republic, an interior design joint venture with Hawaii designer Jenn Johnson.