Who we are
Arbor Realty Capital Advisors was founded by senior brokers who spent the first part of their careers at major international firms — Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, Marcus & Millichap, and their peers. They had closed the billion-dollar assignments. They had also sat through enough meetings where the client was a line item on a quarterly forecast. When they left in 2014 to start Arbor, the thesis was simple: build a firm where the broker who prices your building is the same person who answers the phone at 9 p.m. when the buyer’s lender gets squirrelly.
That’s what “institutional capabilities, boutique accountability” means in practice. Same underwriting rigor you’d get from a tower firm. Different accountability model.
The team
Our brokers average roughly 23 years in commercial real estate. Some have more. A few have less. What they share is the reps — three or four cycles each, two credit crunches, plenty of markets that didn’t behave the way the spreadsheet said they should.
Arbor itself is twelve years old. The people inside it bring careers that predate the company by a decade or more, which is the point.
How we work
We underwrite against live comps, not stale ones. Every exclusive listing runs through a pricing pass against the current quarter’s trades — the same dataset that feeds our public Cap Rate Index. If your building prices below where you think it should, we’ll say so before we pitch it. If the market has softened since your last conversation with a broker, you hear that too.
We syndicate inventory to the places buyers actually look: CoStar, LoopNet, Crexi, plus direct outreach to the institutional and 1031 capital that doesn’t cruise listing sites. The 95% close-to-list average on our 2025 exclusive commercial engagements wasn’t an accident. It was pricing discipline — and saying no to a handful of assignments we couldn’t defend.
What we work on
Senior brokerage across the asset classes investors actually trade: multifamily, office, retail, industrial, mixed-use. Agency leasing and tenant representation where you need someone on the other side of the deal who’ll still take your call a year later. Debt and equity finance through our capital markets desk. 1031 exchange work that gets real attention, because the tax timeline is where most exchanges either get made or lost.
A narrower specialty: healthcare real estate, and strategic advisory for legal and financial professionals. Those aren’t volume practices. They’re the ones we take because the underwriting is harder and the relationships last longer.
Where we work
Headquartered in Pasadena, at 180 South Lake Avenue. Licensed under California DRE Corporation #01980430. Since founding, we’ve closed in fifteen states — the map widens because 1031 capital doesn’t respect regional lines. In Southern California, expect a senior broker in the room in person. Outside it, expect the same senior broker on the phone, and local partners we’ve already vetted.
What we publish
The ARCA SoCal Cap Rate Index is a quarterly public read on where California is trading relative to the U.S. average, across the four core asset classes. Sourced from CoStar SaleComp. Updated the month after each quarter closes. We publish it because the market-making question — is this market pricing tight or wide to the rest of the country, and by how much — is the question every buyer and seller is trying to answer anyway.
Talk to a broker
Thirty minutes with a senior advisor. We’ll pressure-test your pricing, timing, and strategy against current comps and live market data. No pitch deck. No nurture sequence. No pressure.
Frequently asked
When was Arbor Realty Capital Advisors founded?
2014. The firm is twelve-plus years old.
How experienced is the Arbor team?
Our brokers average roughly 23 years in commercial real estate, with a range that runs from about ten years to over thirty.
Where does Arbor operate?
Headquartered in Pasadena, California. Closings in fifteen states since founding.
What makes Arbor different from a larger firm?
Same underwriting rigor. Different accountability. You work with the senior broker, not a deal team handoff.
