Brookfield Properties, which operates one of the country’s largest commercial real estate portfolios, laid off a handful of executives in its office division on Thursday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the downsizing.
In its New York headquarters, the firm let go of three office leasing executives, an executive who oversees asset management, and an employee who was part of an internal group that manages art installations and events, the person familiar with the cuts said. Nationally, “a handful” of people were let go, including roles in Los Angeles and Houston, the person said.
Brookfield Properties is a subsidiary property investment manager for Brookfield, an investment firm that holds more than $1 trillion in assets, including 65 million square feet of US office space.
An internal memo sent to Brookfield Properties employees and shared with Business Insider said the shift reflected the company’s transition from a manager of long-term office investments to one that would oversee various strategies and that would need to reap and recycle capital through more frequent asset sales.
“The evolution of our business — from one largely comprised of forever-hold, balance sheet assets to a mix that also includes properties held in fund strategies with varied hold periods and return goals — has led us to examine our organizational structure,” the memo read.
Brookfield was once well known for its focus on commercial real estate, particularly office buildings, such as Brookfield Place, a large commercial complex it owns in Lower Manhattan. It now controls investments across categories like insurance, credit, infrastructure, and real estate, and has become one of the world’s largest investment firms. In recent years, that evolution has drawn comparisons to other major asset managers like Blackstone.
The latest move restructures the office business’s management and operations, which had been previously organized around regions of the country, into a more nationally focused team, the person familiar with the cuts said.
In 2023, Brookfield Properties appointed Bobby Swennes as the US president of its office division. Swennes’s role remains unchanged, but with the new structure, Brookfield Properties announced that several executives will now take national roles under him.
“We will drive the business by function rather than geography, transitioning from a region-head model to a function-lead model,” the company’s memo stated. “This structure will enhance portfolio-wide strategy and decision-making.”
As part of its broader shift to asset management, Brookfield Properties has cut back on in-house operations personnel to manage its real estate portfolio in favor of third-party service providers. Last year, for instance, the company outsourced property management of its US office portfolio to the real estate services and brokerage firm CBRE.
Brookfield’s office business has also been bruised in past years as part of the aftereffects of the pandemic, which reduced office occupancy and demand. The company defaulted on a collection of office towers in downtown Los Angeles. In 2023, Brookfield Properties laid off dozens of workers, according to written reports at the time.
Brookfield’s focus on higher-end properties has helped its office portfolio rebound from that dip.
The company has also bulked up in areas of the property market beyond office, including rental apartment buildings and industrial warehouses, categories where it has acquired a combined $10 billion of assets in the past year and a half.
