Brandon Efap, 26

Brandon Efap still has the pen he used to sign his first deal.

Sagi Pariente, a broker with Oxford Property Group, was on the other side of the deal. (A tenant called New Creation Beauty Salon found a space at Manhattan’s 970 Amsterdam Avenue.) And Pariente had pens with his name on it. So Efap — who started at KSR after graduating from the University of Connecticut — saved one, and still keeps it as a totem of his entry into the business.

“While I was doing that first deal, right around the same time, we got our own exclusive,” not too far away at 944 Columbus Avenue, and a sign went up with Efap’s name. “I loved being able to see that.”

It’s difficult to quite describe Efap’s fervor as a retail broker and his affection for the business. It shows in his achievements — at just 26, Efap is currently in charge of retail leasing at IPRG.

When many brokers were giving up during the pandemic, Efap was doubling down.

“It showed a lot of brokers whether they were going to stick with this business or not,” Efap said. “It showed me that I loved it. I was biking from the Upper East Side down to Midtown West the second KSR’s doors were open.”

Efap was mostly on the tenant side of the business at KSR, but still got exclusives. He and his colleagues scored an 18,000-square-foot lease at a new mixed-use development at 980 Westchester Avenue in the Bronx for Discount World, a supermarket, at $50 per square foot.

In 2022 Efap’s friend Eli Zempsky told him that IPRG was looking to launch a retail division. After meeting with one of the firm’s partners, Adam Lobel, Efap believed that IPRG was building something he wanted to get in on the ground floor for: an empire. Since starting in September 2022 and going from an associate to a director Efap’s affection for the business has only increased.

“It seemed a frightening thing to do — but it sparked a passion I didn’t know existed,” Efap said.

Indeed, the business is his great love. “I’m married to my job,” Efap said. “Every single day — every single second.”