Major commercial reality firms Zugsmith, Thind to blend Valley/Westside strengths.

Major commercial realty firms Zugsmith, Thind to blend Valley/Westside strengths

Two major Los Angeles commercial brokerage firms, Zugsmith & Associates and Thind Commercial Brokerage Co., have merged to form a new brokerage called Zugsmith/Thind Commercial Real Estate Services, the Business Journal has learned.

The new 50-agent firm brings together the talents of David Thind, a landlord-oriented Westside broker, and Michael Zugsmith, a tenant-oriented San Fernando Valley broker.

The new partners said they have been talking about such a merger for the past two years, and finally decided to take the plunge to capitalize on each other's regional strength and brokerage orientation.

Contrary to some brokers, who claim traditional full-service brokerages will soon be displaced by specialized firms, Zugsmith and Thind insisted "full-service" brokerages, such as their new firm, will dominate.

They further explained that Zugsmith's tenant orientation and Valley strength will act as a complement to Thind's landlord orientation and Westside strength.

"The future belongs to full-service, regional firms with inherent management strength, which is what we're all about," Zugsmith proclaimed.

The two new partners also insisted that one brokerage firm simultaneously representing both tenants and landlords does not represent a conflict of interest, as many specialized brokers claim.

"Who's in a better position to tell a tenant what the best deal is on the street than somebody who's actively representing space on the street?" posited Thind. "You just have to be sure to fully disclose what you mean to each side. The future choice won't be between being a unidimensional firm or full-service firm; it will be between being a lean, mean, regional full-service firm, like us, or a monolithic, bureaucratic, full-service firm, like Coldwell Banker or Grubb & Ellis."

Zugsmith closed down his firm's Tarzana office just last month, bringing most of that office's workforce, including its office manager Sandy Fishman, over to his Studio City office.

Zugsmith will continue operating out of that Studio City office and will co-manage it with Fishman.

Zugsmith's Westside office on Sawtelle Avenue will be converted into Zugsmith/Thind's new Westside office.

Thind and most of his staff will continue operating out of offices at The Tower, a new office project in Westwood that Thind has been leasing.

The Tower project is now 76 percent leased, and will be fully leased in another four or five months, Thind said, after which he and his staff will move into the Sawtelle office. Thind will co-manage that office with Rick Gold, who has managed the office for Zugsmith for the past five years.

Zugsmith and Thind said they have no plans to expand beyond their Westside-San Fernando Valley region.

"We want to stay in our own backyard because we know our own backyard best," Zugsmith said.