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Star luxury broker is leaving firm shaken by rape allegations against Alexander brothers

Jul 18, 2024, 03:10 IST
Business Insider
Tal and Oren AlexanderSean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images; Rebecca Zisser/BI
  • Tyrone McKillen, who leads an eight-person brokerage team in LA, is leaving Official Partners.
  • It's the first major departure after Official's cofounders Tal and Oren Alexander were accused of rape.
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Tyrone McKillen, a high-profile residential-real-estate agent based in Los Angeles, is leaving Official Partners, the luxury brokerage company that was thrown into turmoil after two of its cofounders were accused of rape.

McKillen said he hadn't formally parted ways with the New York firm but was arranging his exit. The 36-year-old broker's sales group, Plus Real Estate, will operate independently under that brand going forward. He said that eight brokers who worked with him at Official would remain with Plus in its breakaway from the firm.

"We have been building the Plus brand over the past 10 years, so it's a natural progression for us," he said.

Nicole Oge, Official's chief growth officer, said that she and McKillen "have a deep amount of respect for one another" and that "I support him in his decision."

The team is the most visible departure so far from the once ascendant brokerage in the aftermath of startling allegations against Tal and Oren Alexander, sibling agents who were among the cofounders of Official when it launched in 2022.

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In June, The Real Deal, a real-estate publication, reported that two women had filed separate civil lawsuits in March against Oren Alexander and another brother, Alon, accusing the men of raping them more than a decade earlier.

Shortly afterward, news broke that a third woman alleged in a New York civil case filed that month that Tal and Alon Alexander raped her in 2012 as Oren Alexander watched.

The three brothers have denied the allegations.

In a response to the lawsuit against him, Tal Alexander said his accuser's claims were "fabricated allegations for financial gain." His attorney has sought to dismiss the case.

Official has distanced itself from the Alexanders

In the aftermath of the allegations, Oge announced that "Oren was immediately isolated from the business" and that "the process of removing him from ownership is well underway."

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An attorney for Tal Alexander announced in a statement in late June that he and Official had mutually agreed that he would "take a leave" from the firm as he focused "fully on clearing his name."

Nonetheless, the close association between the Alexanders, who were among the country's most successful real-estate brokers, and Official has dealt collateral damage to the company's image and business pipeline, even as it seeks to distance itself from its once marquee stars.

JDS Development Group plans to remove the company this week from the sales assignment for 888 Brickell, a high-rise condo tower the firm is building in Miami, a person with direct knowledge of JDS's decision-making said.

Michael Shvo, a builder planning a luxury condo project at the Raleigh hotel in Miami Beach, recently dropped Official from that development's marketing efforts.

John Hudak, a broker based in New York who worked under the Alexanders, also left the company in June, moving to the rival firm Compass.

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"You don't go through something like this as a business and be completely unaffected," Oge said.

Oge said that the firm was "in active and productive discussions to move forward as a strengthened entity." She declined to say whether that included a rebranding or reorganization of the company's ownership structure that would seek to more thoroughly eliminate its connection with the Alexanders.

"We have spent time assessing options to determine what's best for our agents and clients," Oge said.

McKillen was a much-heralded addition to Official when he joined the firm in early 2023, credited with overseeing a team that had tallied $1.8 billion of pricey home sales.

In 2017, he arranged the $88 million sale of a Bel Air mansion to the megastar music couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

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"Tyrone is the ultimate exemplification of Official's vision," Richard Jordan, the company's CEO, said in a statement at the time of his hiring.

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