(Editor’s Note: This story has been updated from an earlier version to include information about Wade Greene.)
Veteran real estate broker Branon Pesnell has left Beau Box Commercial Real Estate to join Houston-based Transwestern Commercial Services, where he will be vice president of tenant advisory services.
Pesnell—who spent 17 years at Beau Box, specializing in the office market—plans to grow Transwestern’s footprint in Louisiana through his existing base of contacts and also will be focused on building his business in the Houston area. His first day on the job was Monday.
Though based in Houston, Pesnell will commute regularly to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where Transwestern has an office. Eventually, he says the company may open a Baton Rouge office, too, depending on how much business he’s able to generate.
Pesnell, who will move his family to Houston at the end of the current school year, decided to leave Baton Rouge for Houston because of the personal and professional growth opportunities the bigger market offers.
“My main focus was to expand my horizons personally, test my skills in a bigger market, on a bigger stage and open up opportunities for myself,” he says. “The skill set and leadership and resources in Houston will benefit me and will benefit us in getting business here in Louisiana.”
Pesnell is the second commercial broker to leave the local market for Transwestern in recent months. Last summer, Wade Greene, a Houston native, left Maestri-Murrell after five years to join Transwestern’s Houston office. Though he lives there full time, he returns to Baton Rouge every few weeks and has retained most of his local clients, who are in the retail sector.
Transwestern is a privately held commercial real estate firm with 35 offices in the U.S. and, through strategic partnerships, operations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. The company was founded in Houston in 1978.
—Stephanie Riegel
