60-plus Advisors, Teams and Executives Receive Awards After Record 2022 Year
April 11, 2023 – By Tom Palmer
BOSTON – Following a record year for 2022, Boston Realty Advisors, the Boston area’s largest independent real estate brokerage, and affiliated residential sales platform Advisors Living today honored more than 60 of their employees, brokers, residential advisors, teams and executives with awards for outstanding achievement during the year.
At a gala morning celebration at the theater of the Lyric Stage Company of Boston in the Back Bay, Boston Realty Advisors Founder and Senior Partner Jason S. Weissman and other executives honored the Boston Realty Advisors and Advisors Living team members for a year in which the company’s divisions achieved record-breaking sales, leasing and real estate industry advisory growth.
“We are growing. We’re doing it with the basics,” said Weissman. “You just need a great platform to succeed, and we’re here to provide that.”
Whitney Gallivan, Managing Director and Partner, was named Commercial Broker of the Year, and Lauren Kokoszka, Senior Marketing Specialist, was named Employee of the Year. Kokoszka got a standing ovation, and Wil Catlin, Senior Partner, noted that Gallivan had worked “for years without a paycheck” to lease retail space in the Abbot, a thoroughly updated and renovated building in Harvard Square, filling the space late last year. “This person showed up steadfast,” he said.
Kevin Benzinger, Director of Boston Realty Advisors, was named Broker of the Year for Capital Markets for the second time.
Bonny L. Doorakian, Managing Director and Partner, was named Broker of the Year for Office Leasing. Merit McIntyre, President and Chief Executive Officer of Advisors Living, noted that commercial real estate has been considered “a man’s business,” adding, “Whitney and Bonny are really kicking these guys’ butts.”
Joe Wagner, Associate Director, was named Broker of the Year for Retail Leasing. Catlin, with the company for 22 years, described Wagner as one of those “individuals not afraid to pick up the phone.” One of Wagner’s calls resulted in Boston Realty Advisors representing the owner of the iconic Back Bay building 2 Newbury St., former home of Burberry, for sale.
Catlin noted the challenges today, when before the pandemic there were about 10 options in the 320 or so buildings downtown for a prospective tenant. “Now there are 128,” he said. “We have to differentiate ourselves.”
Ryan Archuleta, Maintenance Technician, was named Team Member of the Year for Property Management for the second year in a row, in a division of Boston Realty Advisors that is showing rapid growth.
Robert F. LeClair, Managing Director and Partner, was named Team Member of the Year for overseeing Advisors Giving, Boston Realty Advisors’ considerable charitable work. “By helping others we’re helping ourselves – our entire community,” said Catlin.
He said LeClair led the company to raise more than $2 million last year, much for Heading Home, the nonprofit organization.
And he noted that Katya Malakhova, a Residential Advisor and Ukraine native, had recently been honored by the real estate network Leading/RE for the nonprofit “Sunflower of Peace,” which she founded and which has raised $9 million for the country that has been under attack by Russia for the last year.
The entire New Development team, led by Chief Executive Officer Janice Dumont, received the New Development Team Award. Dumont said the team had completed 222 sales valued at more than $850 million. “You are all stars,” she said.
Dumont gave her team copies of “The Power of One More,” by Ed Mylett, the title of which she said is “our motto for 2023.”
Liyuan Bai, Residential Advisor, received the Team Player of the Year Award.
Jon DiPietro, Managing Director, received the award for Manager of the Most Profitable Office, namely the Back Bay. DiPietro, also Relocation Director, awarded the Relocation Agent of the Year to June Sparks of Advisor Living’s Andover office. Referrals to other real estate professionals is a way to add substantially to their income.
McIntyre awarded Michelle Oates, Senior Vice President of Advisors Living, the Business Development by Agent Count Award for Management. A Maynard office will open in about three weeks and a new Arlington office in a month. “Last year I said we would open five offices,” McIntyre said. “We opened 11. I don’t know how we did it.”
Susan Tsantes, Advisors Living Managing Broker, received the award for Most Gross Commission Income, for Advisors Living’s Sherborn and Sudbury offices.
McIntyre announced the Chairmans Club awardees. “Imagine waking up every morning knowing you are growing the greatest real estate company on earth, with the most talented agents and support staff in the marketplace,” he said.
In addition, Tori MacDowell, Vice President of Residential Sales, and Carmela Laurella, President of CL Properties, were named to the Chairman’s Club. McDowell sold more than $40 million in real estate last year.
And 11 agents or Advisors Living teams were named to the President’s Club.
Twenty agents or teams in the Advisors Living division were named to the Vice President’s Club.
And 22 Advisors Living agents or teams were named to the Platinum Club.
Finally, the Weissman Trophy went to Residential Advisor Ken So, “a great team player, whose culture is hard work and enthusiasm,” said Weissman, who himself started in the real estate business in 1997 as a freshman in college. “I think he has a great future,” he said of So.
THE 2022 YEAR RECORD
As previously reported, Boston Realty Advisors and associated companies including Advisors Living achieved record-breaking sales, leasing and real estate industry advisory growth for the 2022 calendar year..
Advisors Living sales of single family homes and condominiums were up 356 percent over 2021, with a total of 1,354 sales worth $1.4 billion, and the residential brokerage added 114residential advisors during the year, bringing the Advisors Living number of advisors to 194.
Advisors Living opened multiple new offices in the Greater Boston area and Maine, now serving home buyers and sellers in a total of 14 locations.
Every division in the company experienced growth last year. Boston Realty Advisors completed 165 commercial leases during the year, a 57 percent increase over 2021, for a company record total of 465,218 square feet.
The independent commercial real estate firm Boston Realty Advisors and its associated residential sales brand, Advisors Living, were founded by Weissman in 2001. Catlin joined in 2001 as Senior Partner.
The company’s brokerage and consulting services include commercial sales and leasing, retail leasing, homes sales, new development marketing and sales, commercial property and residential property management, and capital markets and investment sales.
