Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors has hired Jessica Graham and RC Myles. (Courtesy Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors)
A Denver real estate brokerage has hired two people to serve as president and managing director, saying adding staff during a down market has worked well before.
“We went out to hire one person and hired two,” said co-founder Matt Ritter.
RC Myles started Tuesday as president of the firm, according to the company, and Jessica Graham started the same day as managing director.
Pinnacle, headquartered at 1 N. Broadway, was founded in summer 2006 by Ritter and Jeff Johnson. The ownership group now also includes Jim Knowlton and Josh Newell.
In a Tuesday interview, Ritter recalled the years following the 2008 financial crisis, when he decided to double down and expand the brokerage in the face of a recession.
“That was a time for us to really invest in the business and our brokers. We really grew from that downturn … We’re seeing the exact same thing happen again,” Ritter said.
Pinnacle originally set out to hire a new managing director last fall, but quickly found itself overwhelmed by the number of interested applicants.
“A managing director in our business kind of acts as the president of the company, kind of runs the company, supports the brokers, does sales management, but also acts as the head of the company for the ownership group,” said Ritter.
But since the firm has hired two people for one job, a formal division of labor isn’t expected out of the gate.
“Generally, we’re continuing to learn more about the company and specifically the brokers and staff here. RC and I are working hand in hand on all roles and responsibilities. I think over time, we may see that adjust a little bit into my focus primarily being on existing brokers and support and operations,” Graham said.
“My role is partnering with all the existing brokers, helping them to navigate these troubled waters that we’re in but then also recruit and bring in the top talent that’s around town that may not be happy where they are. So that’s kind of a focus that I’ve got,” Myles said.
Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors is based at 1 N. Broadway in Denver. (Courtesy Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors)
Myles and Graham have differing, but complementary, backgrounds in real estate.
Born in Montana but raised in Colorado, Myles, 55, said he’s “not the typical transplant” to Denver. After attending University of Colorado Law, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who was also in commercial real estate at the time and landed a job at the firm Fuller & Co. out of school in 1990.
“I magnetically was just pulled into the industry against my will, but decided, ‘All right, this is a pretty fun space’,” he said.
So, Myles got to work brokering industrial sales and learning the trades of the industry.
“I used to say if it’s got a garage door on it, it’s probably something I would work on,” he said.
After 20 years working for Fuller, numerous acquisitions in the 2010s led to Myles brokering for Cushman & Wakefield, which he would leave in 2019. He took a year off to work as a ski instructor – a fun “diversion” from his normal work, Myles said.
Most recently, he was working at Thrive Commercial Group, a firm he founded in 2020.
“We have different pools that we swim in. I’m very involved in CCIM, which is an investment organization, international in scope, and then also SIOR, which is the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors … and then Jessica really is very active on the multifamily side. So I think, you know, divide and conquer is how I describe it,” Myles said.
Graham, 39, got her start a bit more recently. Born in Colorado, she graduated from MSU Denver and started working for Apartment Realty Advisors, a small multifamily brokerage, in the late 2000s.
Similar to Myles, her company was bought out by Newmark in 2014. Graham had previously been tasked with running offices in Colorado, Arizona and Utah.
After over seven years at Newmark, in 2021 she moved into her most recent role as leader of the multifamily capital markets team at CBRE.
“Pinnacle’s leadership team — between the three of us and then Jeff Johnson, Jim Knowlton and Josh Newell — I mean, we all experienced 2008-2009. Some have experienced other downturns,” Graham said. “I think combined we have 120 years of experience in real estate and in true brokerage real estate. So we’re able to not only advise our clients, but all of our brokers are able to leverage each and every one of us to help advise their clients.”
Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors has hired Jessica Graham and RC Myles. (Courtesy Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors)
A Denver real estate brokerage has hired two people to serve as president and managing director, saying adding staff during a down market has worked well before.
“We went out to hire one person and hired two,” said co-founder Matt Ritter.
RC Myles started Tuesday as president of the firm, according to the company, and Jessica Graham started the same day as managing director.
Pinnacle, headquartered at 1 N. Broadway, was founded in summer 2006 by Ritter and Jeff Johnson. The ownership group now also includes Jim Knowlton and Josh Newell.
In a Tuesday interview, Ritter recalled the years following the 2008 financial crisis, when he decided to double down and expand the brokerage in the face of a recession.
“That was a time for us to really invest in the business and our brokers. We really grew from that downturn … We’re seeing the exact same thing happen again,” Ritter said.
Pinnacle originally set out to hire a new managing director last fall, but quickly found itself overwhelmed by the number of interested applicants.
“A managing director in our business kind of acts as the president of the company, kind of runs the company, supports the brokers, does sales management, but also acts as the head of the company for the ownership group,” said Ritter.
But since the firm has hired two people for one job, a formal division of labor isn’t expected out of the gate.
“Generally, we’re continuing to learn more about the company and specifically the brokers and staff here. RC and I are working hand in hand on all roles and responsibilities. I think over time, we may see that adjust a little bit into my focus primarily being on existing brokers and support and operations,” Graham said.
“My role is partnering with all the existing brokers, helping them to navigate these troubled waters that we’re in but then also recruit and bring in the top talent that’s around town that may not be happy where they are. So that’s kind of a focus that I’ve got,” Myles said.
Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors is based at 1 N. Broadway in Denver. (Courtesy Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors)
Myles and Graham have differing, but complementary, backgrounds in real estate.
Born in Montana but raised in Colorado, Myles, 55, said he’s “not the typical transplant” to Denver. After attending University of Colorado Law, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who was also in commercial real estate at the time and landed a job at the firm Fuller & Co. out of school in 1990.
“I magnetically was just pulled into the industry against my will, but decided, ‘All right, this is a pretty fun space’,” he said.
So, Myles got to work brokering industrial sales and learning the trades of the industry.
“I used to say if it’s got a garage door on it, it’s probably something I would work on,” he said.
After 20 years working for Fuller, numerous acquisitions in the 2010s led to Myles brokering for Cushman & Wakefield, which he would leave in 2019. He took a year off to work as a ski instructor – a fun “diversion” from his normal work, Myles said.
Most recently, he was working at Thrive Commercial Group, a firm he founded in 2020.
“We have different pools that we swim in. I’m very involved in CCIM, which is an investment organization, international in scope, and then also SIOR, which is the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors … and then Jessica really is very active on the multifamily side. So I think, you know, divide and conquer is how I describe it,” Myles said.
Graham, 39, got her start a bit more recently. Born in Colorado, she graduated from MSU Denver and started working for Apartment Realty Advisors, a small multifamily brokerage, in the late 2000s.
Similar to Myles, her company was bought out by Newmark in 2014. Graham had previously been tasked with running offices in Colorado, Arizona and Utah.
After over seven years at Newmark, in 2021 she moved into her most recent role as leader of the multifamily capital markets team at CBRE.
“Pinnacle’s leadership team — between the three of us and then Jeff Johnson, Jim Knowlton and Josh Newell — I mean, we all experienced 2008-2009. Some have experienced other downturns,” Graham said. “I think combined we have 120 years of experience in real estate and in true brokerage real estate. So we’re able to not only advise our clients, but all of our brokers are able to leverage each and every one of us to help advise their clients.”
