Hessam Nadji

Marcus & Millichap, one of the continent’s largest commercial real estate services firms, posted solid 2024 numbers. Revenue hit $696.1 million compared with $645.9 million in 2023. Brokerage commissions were up by roughly $30 million, financing fees by more than $17 million. The key measure of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization turned positive for the year by $9.4 million after losses in 2023.  

Hessam Nadji, who has led Marcus & Millichap since 2016, attributes such a performance to one thing. 

“In 2024, we saw a return of capital to the market in comparison to 2023, led by institutional investors and larger private investors who had been on the sidelines for most of 2023, and part of 2022, actually,” Nadji told Commercial Observer. “Therefore we saw larger deals transact.”

The Calabasas, Calif.-based company handled myriad deals across just about every asset class. It would consume much of our Power 100 footprint to list a fraction, but a couple of recent sizable ones include brokering the $94.5 sale of a 13-property multifamily portfolio in Manhattan’s Chelsea in December, and brokering a 16-property multifamily sale in Los Angeles that closed around the same time and that was among the six largest portfolio deals in L.A. County in 2024. 

Multifamily was a particular bright spot for Marcus & Millichap last year, including through its decade-old Institutional Property Advisors division catering to — what else? — institutional buyers. “We saw significant improvement in transaction volumes in multifamily last year,” Nadji said. “In fact, that led the large-deal rebound for us and, I believe, for the marketplace.” 

Marcus & Millichap’s 2025 looks promising, though macroeconomic uncertainties such as a recession could cloud that outlook, according to its chief executive. The company is poised to continue to capitalize on secular trends such as more alignment between buyers and sellers — and the fact that more sellers will have to sell given maturing loans on their properties. 

“The real catalyst was price adjustments,” Nadji said of 2024’s dealmaking, “and the fact that those price adjustments make entry points very favorable compared to replacement costs and the fact that there had been a pretty significant price correction from the peak of the market in March 2022.”