The penthouse office at the Bank of America Building in Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle serves as an extension of Drew Fenton’s collections, housing his Billy Haines chairs (currently about $4,000 a set at one online auction house), vintage seating by Italian architect Gio Ponti and 500 design books.
Fenton, who runs boutique residential brokerage Carolwood Estates, rarely sits still long enough to enjoy the space, which has views over Holmby Hills, Bel Air and other tony neighborhoods and feels more like the luxury mansions he sells than the headquarters of a top brokerage.
“I’m not sitting in an office tower, disconnected from the community,” he said. He prefers to be out working in the “sandbox” — the real world.
But the office is his to run. Fenton, who spent more than 20 years making his name as an agent, is the chief executive officer of Carolwood, which he founded in 2022 with Ed Leyson and Nick Segal. The firm now has 164 agents and last year marked $1.6 billion in sales volume.
Carolwood is one of several boutique brokerages led by agents who dominated Los Angeles at other firms and are now trying out a new title: the boss.
Many motivated by a desire to ditch corporate life, these agent-entrepreneurs are already seeing success, although some also grapple with the mundane tasks of being top dog and the details of managing an operation.
