{"id":517508,"date":"2026-01-15T08:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T08:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/517508\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T08:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T08:37:17","slug":"houston-brokerages-deal-a-new-hand-of-market-leaders-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/517508\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Brokerages Deal A New Hand Of Market Leaders For 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter Mainguy<\/a> fielded requests from several brokerages interested in hiring him during his five-year tenure as CBRE<\/a>\u2019s Houston market leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet he secured a new position<\/a> managing the Texas region at Partners Real Estate<\/a> by taking the initiative to call and introduce himself to Partners CEO Jon Silberman<\/a>, even though he didn’t know whether there would be a position for him. The private brokerage structure sparked his curiosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBrokerage can traditionally be very siloed when different professionals don’t have a vested interest in each other’s success,\u201d Mainguy said. \u201cBut in the partnership structure, that’s not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Bisnow\/created with assistance from ChatGPT\n <\/p>\n

Mainguy\u2019s move to Partners is\u00a0one of a slew of new market heads<\/a> or significant personnel changes at Houston commercial real estate brokerages in a short timeframe.<\/p>\n

Along with CBRE, JLL<\/a>, Transwestern<\/a> and Cushman & Wakefield are starting the year with new market heads. Avison Young<\/a>\u2019s Houston office leader\u00a0moved to Lee & Associates<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brokers and executives say regular market moves and a changing of the guard, which have created opportunities for the next generation of leaders, drove the significant shuffle. But some also cited the increasing draw of broker-owned firms, where they say they can focus on serving their clients and each other rather than shareholders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CBRE internally backfilled<\/a> Mainguy\u2019s position with Russell Hodges<\/a>. JLL\u00a0promoted Ronnie Deyo<\/a> to replace Dan Bellow<\/a> as president of its Houston office after Bellow stepped down to an advisory role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Transwestern\u2019s Kevin Roberts<\/a>\u00a0transitioned to the role of executive vice president<\/a> after 15 years, prompting Clint Bawcom<\/a> to leave his Cushman & Wakefield market leader position to fill the role. Replacing Bawcom at Cushman & Wakefield is Travis Overall<\/a>, previously of Brookfield Properties<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBrokers tend to move every five to 10 years. It’s just kind of what they do,\u201d said Chris Lewis<\/a>, managing principal of Lee & Associates-Houston. \u201cWe tend to get the brokers that are super-experienced, that are looking to take care of their clients, and looking to work at their own pace but have all the resources.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Longtime Houston broker and manager Wade Bowlin<\/a> shifted in December from Avison Young<\/a> \u2014 where he led the Houston office through a partial merger with Madison Marquette<\/a> \u2014 to Lee & Associates, which says it is the biggest broker-owned brokerage in North America.<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\n Courtesy of Lee & Associates-Houston\n <\/p>\n

\n Lee & Associates’ Wade Bowlin and Chris Lewis\n <\/p>\n

Bowlin declined to comment on why he left Avison Young, another private firm. But when looking to make a move, he said he was lucky \u201cto have offers from most of the groups\u201d and the culture and structure of Lee & Associates enticed him.<\/p>\n

Bowlin has seen more mergers and acquisitions activity among large firms nationally, sending the industry in a direction he did not want to follow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I’ve seen is them continuing to thin the roles, the support, the things that were important to me,\u201d Bowlin said. \u201cWhile Lee & Associates is a national firm, they\u2019re run locally, and Chris and Mike [Spears] make all the decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Bowlin asked how Lee & Associates handles staffing, Lewis simply asked what he would need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re really about taking care of our clients, and that’s just the way to do it, rather than taking care of the stockholders,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

Partners\u2019 private structure really appealed to Mainguy. Running a commercial real estate professional services firm with an equity partnership structure, like an elite law or consulting firm, creates alignment and collaboration within the firm, Mainguy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mainguy also couldn\u2019t help but\u00a0notice the firm\u2019s\u00a0substantial growth<\/a>\u00a0in recent years, and he expects private brokerages to continue growing and capturing\u00a0a larger market share in the CRE industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn’t think there was an opportunity to grow, it wouldn\u2019t be an appealing offer, and I wouldn’t have made the move,\u201d Mainguy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The brokerage called Mainguy\u2019s hiring \u201canother significant win\u201d following its poaching of an agency office leasing team<\/a>\u00a0from Cushman & Wakefield in March.<\/p>\n

But Cushman has had its own wins. CEO Michelle MacKay<\/a> said in April<\/a>\u00a0the firm is following through on a growth strategy it began in late 2024, and within\u00a0that strategy, talent is a \u201ccritical component.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cushman\u2019s new Houston market leader, Travis Overall, has 27 years of Houston CRE experience. He told Bisnow\u00a0he hopes to grow the firm\u2019s platform and further build its Houston business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The firm is always thinking about the client first, which he knows from having been the client at Brookfield<\/a> and Hines<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Placeholder\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cCushman & Wakefield has such a great legacy in the Houston market, such a strong brand going all the way back to the Cushman Realty days,\u201d Overall said. \u201cI just saw [my joining] as a great opportunity to bring the principal perspective to this side of the business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mike Pittman, a Cushman & Wakefield retail broker, said the new market head marks a change of regime that he\u2019s meeting with excitement. But, ultimately, a market leader is a minimal factor for a broker when considering where to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bigger items are fundamentals of the business,\u201d Pittman said. \u201cHow does the company operate? Are you giving the support necessary that you need as a broker? Those things are much more important.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russell Hodges, the new market leader of CBRE, Houston\u2019s largest CRE brokerage,\u00a0accepts\u00a0great responsibility for how people feel about coming to work every day, he said in a written statement to Bisnow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lucian Bukowski<\/a>, a top Houston broker,\u00a0joined privately owned Stream Realty Partners last year<\/a> after being fired from CBRE. Bukowski said he was recruited by several firms but had no desire to work for another public company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bukowski said some, like himself, will continue to leave public companies in favor of private firms. But the timing of Houston\u2019s personnel changes in late 2025 and early 2026 is largely coincidental, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some leaders will retire just because it is the right time for them, while others consider timing as well as \u201cmaking room for a younger generation of leaders,\u201d Bukowski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don’t create opportunities to grow in an organization, they go somewhere else, or they don’t come in the first place,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mainguy also thinks much of the timing is coincidental.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think there was anything in the universe saying that the end of 2025 was going to be the time period for the reshuffling of the deck in Houston,\u201d\u00a0he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Mainguy fielded requests from several brokerages interested in hiring him during his five-year tenure as CBRE\u2019s Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":517509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[44622,15833,38511,72714,17201,230764,4345,40809,195864,72713,191180,230768,230767,230770,139592,195865,230765,230769,78002,358,72712,224872,3187,230766],"class_list":{"0":"post-517508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-avison-young","9":"tag-cbre","10":"tag-chris-lewis","11":"tag-clint-bawcom","12":"tag-cushman-wakefield","13":"tag-dan-bellow","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-jll","16":"tag-jon-silberman","17":"tag-kevin-roberts","18":"tag-lee-associates","19":"tag-lee-associates-houston","20":"tag-lucian-bukowski","21":"tag-mike-pittman-ii","22":"tag-partners-real-estate","23":"tag-peter-mainguy","24":"tag-ronnie-deyo","25":"tag-russell-hodges","26":"tag-stream-realty-partners","27":"tag-texas","28":"tag-transwestern","29":"tag-travis-overall","30":"tag-tx","31":"tag-wade-bowlin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115898210394543669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}