Eastern Union Funding Taps Into Long Island Market with Valley Stream Office
By Terence Cullen September 17, 2015 2:43 pm
reprints
As the New York Islanders make the move from Nassau County to Prospect Heights next month, a Brooklyn-based mortgage brokerage is opening a new office in the Long Island suburbs.
Eastern Union Funding has signed a 1,500-square-foot lease in Valley Stream in an effort to branch out into the Long Island market, Commercial Observer has learned. The new outpost at 181 South Franklin Avenue will be home to 15 brokers, according to the brokerage. Jonathan Singer and Jake Handelsman, both senior managing directors at the firm, will be heading up the Nassau County operation, which Eastern Union believes is an untapped area.
“There’s endless potential here,” said Eastern Union President Ira Zlotowitz in prepared remarks. “As we grow our business together with the team, launch new initiatives and cultivate unique loan products we believe it’s also important to focus on these burgeoning markets. Put these pieces together and we came up with a fitting home for our newest full-fledged office.”
Long Island-based lenders are welcoming the brokerage, which has been on a hiring spree and branching out as of late. Stephen York, the vice president of Arbor Commercial Mortgage, a lender based in Uniondale, N.Y., said in a press release that Eastern Union would give some gravitas to the Long Island market.
“As a Long Island-headquartered multifamily lender with a nationwide business, we have long recognized that the Long Island market has lacked a true national brokerage company with a local presence,” Mr. York said in prepared remarks. “As a result, Long Island’s commercial real estate market and its investors are sure to benefit from the expertise of Eastern Union at its new Valley Stream office.”
Mr. Zlotowitz announced in July that Eastern Union is in the process of hiring 200 additional brokers and opening several new offices across New York City, nearly tripling the number of people employed by the firm. In May, the commercial real estate mortgage brokerage established an equity division with a focus on smaller investments, as CO reported at the time.
