Kidder Mathews Expands Brokerage Team in Seattle With Trio of Hires
Kidder Mathews has hired three executives to help oversee business in several property types in Seattle, including an office sector struggling with big drops in occupancy in the brokerage’s hometown.
Retail specialist John Chelico joined the company as a senior vice president, and Matthew Renshaw was hired as a senior vice president and office tenant advisory specialist. The additions follow Kidder Mathew’s move in late January to add Tyler Nicholes as a vice president at the firm’s offices in downtown Seattle.
The new hires were made as Seattle’s exposure to technology companies with large leases expiring has created challenges for the city’s office market mired in its most-pronounced downturn in more than 40 years, according to a CoStar Market Analytics report.
In the past year, office occupancy in Seattle fell by more than 4 million square feet, the CoStar report said.
“That is the largest one-year drop on record, and it continued a trend that started in 2020,” the report said. “Since the onset of the pandemic, tenants have vacated about 10 million [square feet], or 4% of the total office inventory. By comparison, negative absorption during the dotcom bust was only about 2% of total inventory.”
Retail is faring better with limited supply leading to a low availability rate of 3% in the city. This is occurring as owners redevelop or convert existing retail properties into mixed-use properties.
Chelico, who has completed over 5 million square feet of retail leases totaling more than $400 million in rental income over a 28-year career in the Puget Sound region, was most recently a broker at JSH Properties in Bellevue, Washington.
His clients include institutional owners, real estate investment trusts, developers and high-net-worth individuals.
Renshaw has over 20 years of experience representing tenants and landlords, during which he has brokered over 11 million square feet of office transactions. He began his brokerage career at CBRE, where he served as vice president and spent 15 years focusing on office transactions. Following his time at CBRE, he opened a new office for Coldwell Banker Commercial as managing principal. Before joining Kidder Mathews, Renshaw was managing principal for SVN Commercial.
Nicholes specializes in office and industrial investment sales and leasing. He joined the company from Marcus & Millichap, where he started his brokerage career in 2016. He has negotiated transactions for more than 700,000 square feet of property totaling over $70 million in value in his career.
Kidder Mathews has more than 900 real estate professionals and staff in 20 offices across Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona.
