An executive with Douglas Elliman’s new development arm has left the brokerage for an industry startup.
After nearly a decade, Caitlin Chagan exited the brokerage to join Redeavor, a new development advisory firm launched earlier this year by executives from firms such as the Agency, Elliman and Official.
While at Elliman, Chagan also managed the new development portfolio of the brokerage’s top-producing Eklund-Gomes Team, including Argo Real Estate’s 64 University Place in Greenwich Village. Other projects under her purview included Sugar Hill Capital Partner’s One Prospect Park West, Bruce Eichner’s Madison Square Park Tower and Broad Street Development’s 40 Bleeker.
Chagan, who previously managed Elliman’s portfolio in Brooklyn and some projects in Manhattan, is taking over as a co-founder and managing partner. She described her new role as serving as a bridge between the firm and agents across brokerages, including overseeing Redeavor’s New Development Sales & Marketing Platform for Top Agents.
She’s also tasked with growing Redeavor’s footprint in New York, where the firm doesn’t have any active projects.
Chagan said she was drawn to the firm because it offered a “fresh opportunity” in an industry she characterized as having a “resistance to change.” She added that Redeavor’s mission to “decouple” new development services from brokerages was a logical next step for the sector.
“It’s not just an arm of a brokerage,” Chagan said of Redeavor. “We’re not an addendum or an add-on. This is what we do.”
A spokesperson for Elliman said the firm “wishes Caitlan well in her future endeavors.”
Before joining the brokerage in 2016, Chagan was the director of marketing at MNS Real Estate in Brooklyn for three years. She also had a year-long stint on Corcoran’s Deanna Kory Team and as the marketing director of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ Lavinia Smerconish Team.
Andrew Wachtfogel, one of Redeavor’s co-founders, said in a statement that “Caitlin will play a pivotal role in fueling Redeavor’s national expansion.”
“Her depth of experience across all facets of new development—from pre-development planning and branding to sales execution and market repositioning—is unmatched,” said Wachtfogel.
Wachtfogel, the former president of new development at Official Partners — the brokerage he started alongside Nicole Oge, Richard Jordan and the now-disgraced brokers Tal and Oren Alexander — launched Redeavor with Mike Leipart, the founder of the Agency Development Group; Shane Farkas, a former Agency executive; and and Wade Hundley, the president of Formida Capital and former chief executive of ST Residential.
Redeavor launched in February with a pipeline of projects valued at $4 billion. The firm’s portfolio includes seven projects, most of which are in Southern California, Las Vegas and Nashville, according to its website. It also opened with an outpost in Dallas with plans to expand further into Texas, South Florida and Colorado.
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