Douglas Elliman’s head of residential leasing Hal Gavzie is no longer with the firm, The Real Deal has learned.
Gavzie joined the firm almost 10 years ago to take over its rental division. He added new development leasing to his purview just eight months later as the result of a restructuring. Over the next decade, Gavzie oversaw the expansion of Douglas Elliman’s leasing operations, including new development leasing in New York and South Florida.
Gavzie’s latest title was executive vice president of residential sales and leasing.
Prior to joining Elliman, Gavzie held managing director roles at Town Residential, Corcoran and Citi Habitats. Gavzie did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for Douglas Elliman declined to comment on the exit and said “we wish Hal all the best in his next endeavor.” Elliman has not yet announced a replacement for Gavzie, the spokesperson said.
The move is yet another reshuffle of Elliman’s executive deck in the last several months.
The firm laid off four senior employees last month, including the heads of agent training and development and relocation and referrals. A spokesperson for Elliman previously said those layoffs, which were referred to internally as “organizational restructuring,” were made for the sake of “operational efficiency.”
The firm also replaced its chief marketing officer Stephanie Garbarini, who had been with the firm six years, with Natalie Passerini, who had previously been Elliman’s vice president of marketing.
The firm has also built out its C-suite, promoting Wendy Purvey to chief strategy and hiring Chris Reyes as its chief technology officer in November.
CEO Michael Liebowitz touted the company’s latest recruitment strategies in a recent interview with The Real Deal, without pointing to specific moves. “We’re basically doing things on the recruiting side that Douglas Elliman never did before,” he said.
He also said that the company was through “its transition” phase, which included selling off its property management arm and focusing on the Elliman brand.
“We are so totally transitioned,” he said.
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