CBRE. JLL. Cassidy. And PM Realty Group? The Houston-based powerhouse and local property management mainstay is launching its very first brokerage arm in DC with two new hires.

Yesterday, we snapped PMRG DC managing director Dave Parker with new hires Andy Gilpin (formerly of CBRE), Eddie Trujillo (J Street), and marketing mavens Alison Reich and Kim Lim. Andy and Eddie will lead the office leasing practice. The duo hopes to leverage PMRG's national reach (it's got a major leasing and management presence in Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta, among others), while also winning new business the old-fashioned way: relationship-building and cold-calling. (We always thought that meant getting clients drunk on old-fashioneds.) PMRG, which manages 41M SF in Houston alone, as well as 1.5M SF locally, had sought to add brokerage services in DC a few years ago, Dave says, but the recession put those plans on hold.

Here's 1200 New Hampshire Ave, the firm's DC HQ and a building it's managed for years. (It also manages 810 7th St, the House of Sweden, and 2300 M St, among others locally.) Eddie, a 30-year veteran of the DC brokerage biz, says there's an opportunity to take on bigger brokerage firms since some of them have more clients than they can handle and can't offer the kind of direct service a smaller firm can. He and Andy will perform both tenant and landlord work, and say they have a specialty in representing small- to medium-size law firms and associations.

As our Bisnow Houston staff tells us, PMRG is developer of the city's tallest residential building, the 40-story 2929 Weslayan (pictured). Dave says that kind of national cache, along with the nimble nature of a small but experienced brokerage team, poises PMRG well to attack DC. "We're going to go after institutional owners that need and want a more focused level of service."