Jul. 22--Brokers at the local office of GVA Advantis, one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the Richmond area, have been bailing out.

As many as seven brokers reportedly have left the local office.

Jamie Thomas, the former managing director at GVA Advantis, started yesterday at First Potomac Realty Trust as the regional property manager for the Richmond and Chesapeake offices. He was unavailable for comment.

GVA Advantis' top regional producer, Charlie Polk, departed after 21 years to open a local brokerage office for Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle. He is the managing director for the Richmond and Hampton Roads region.

Polk's clients have included Lumber Liquidators, Cherry Bekaert & Holland, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Universal Corp. and Supervalu Inc.

"Jones Lang LaSalle is the best name in commercial real estate in the country -- that's the primary reason," Polk said yesterday.

The new Jones Lang LaSalle office in Richmond will hire 20 to 25 people in the broker and property-management business within the next six months, he said.

Polk also pointed to GVA Advantis' financial troubles that led to the closings last week of six of the company's 16 offices in the Southeast. The offices closed were in Washington, Northern Virginia, Newport News, Gulfport, Miss., and Tallahassee and Panama City, Fla.

GVA Advantis blamed a difficult environment for selling and leasing commercial real estate for the closures.

Richmond, one of the company's highest-performing offices, was not supposed to be among them. It was unclear yesterday whether the local office will remain open.

Messages left at the local GVA Advantis office and the corporate headquarters in Washington were not returned. Nor did anyone answer the main telephone number at the Richmond office.

Polk said GVA Advantis had about 15 brokers at the local office and 125 companywide. "Thirty to 40 have jettisoned over the past month," he said.

"Depending on the type of commercial real estate involved, transaction volume is down anywhere from 60 to 90 percent from the market peak in 2006 and 2007," Jeffrey T. Neal, chairman of GVA Advantis, told the Washington Business Journal last week.

Stevens N. Gentil, chairman of real estate brokerage Grubb & Ellis/Harrison & Bates in Henrico County, said yesterday that he expects the local GVA Advantis office, at 707 E. Main St., to close because of the departures of its key people.

Gentil said he was surprised by the closing last week of the Newport News brokerage office. "The branch completely imploded."

Once part of The St. Joe Co. in Jacksonville, Fla., GVA Advantis was spun off before it was acquired in mid-2008 by a private equity company in Washington. ------

Contact Carol Hazard at (804) 775-8023 or chazard@timesdispatch.com.

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