Horacio LeDon/Facebook
There is a lot of new on the horizon for Partners Trust. The firm recently opened a retail design boutique under its office to attract locals, and now it’s bringing in new talent by hiring Horacio LeDon to head up the firm’s new development segment.
Partners Trust CEO Nick Segal doesn’t think there could be a better fit for the newly created position.
“I’ll call it an expanded direction,” he said.
“To have this other facet, we get the intelligence and expertise of this new development, and the new development gets the acumen and the pedigree and the reputation of Partners Trust. It’s a wonderful compounding synergy.”
This is the L.A.-based real estate firm’s first venture into the new development sector. With LeDon at the wheel — it was just over one year ago he left Douglas Elliman as president of development marketing — Segal is interested in taking it one step at a time.
“It didn’t start as becoming ‘OK! Here’s the idea, we’ll just do new development,'” Segal recalled.
Following LeDon’s time at Douglas Elliman, Segal admitted he wasn’t sure whether his new department head was even interested in the position. Whatever convincing LeDon needed was hammered out in conversations over the a few months.
Partners Trust has never operated in the new development sector. The firm opened in 2009 and has focused on residential real estate in the L.A. area. It has eight offices spread across the metro area.
Growth without getting too far ahead
Although Segal hinted at the idea of LeDon already “percolating ideas,” he said the new development side of Partners Trust will take its time.
Before even taking meetings, Segal wants to make sure the foundation for the new endeavor is in place.
“It’s one more opportunity for us to service our clients that may not be intersted in buying or selling a home, but has this piece of dirt,” he said.
It’s his hope that LeDon and the new development segment of Partners Trust will grow naturally and is adamant about not getting too far ahead of themselves on the venture
