YOU DON’T START A FIRM WITH TWO PEOPLE YOU RESPECT.
YOU START IT WITH TWO PEOPLE YOU TRUST COMPLETELY.
– Kenneth
Hendrik Evens, Kenneth Verloo and Stijn Thomas founded Avenue in 2020. All three came from senior positions in
international real estate. Avenue today operates across five commercial divisions: High Streets Agency, Out of Town Agency, High Streets Invest, Out of Town Invest, and Residential.
You all came from international real estate firms before founding Avenue.
What pushed you out?
H: A simple question that wouldn’t go away. Could we operate the way we wanted
to operate — proactive, at decision level, with real ownership — inside the structure
we were in? At some point the answerbecame clearly no.
So we built something with a different posture from the ground up.
K: And the fact that we’d known each other since we were kids made it possible.
You don’t start a firm with two people you respect. You start it with two people you
trust completely.
Plenty of advisory firms claim they do
things differently. What’s something
Avenue refuses to do that the rest of the
sector does?
S: Pure execution. The sector is full of advisors who run between parties, carry
offers, and call themselves consultants. We don’t operate that way. If we’re not
adding strategic weight to a transaction — a view on the asset, the timing, the
positioning — we shouldn’t be in the room. The handover, the paperwork, the
introductions: that’s logistics. It’s not what clients should be paying advisory fees for.
H: Which means our work starts earlier and goes deeper than a typical mandate.
We’re at the table when the strategy gets shaped, not when the deal gets papered.
That’s a different kind of firm to run, and a different kind of firm to hire.
Looking back, what did you get wrong in
those first years?
H: We underestimated how much of the work is internal. Operating ahead of the
market means building systems that don’t slow you down. Process, infrastructure, team standards.
We were strong on conviction and lighter on structure. We’ve spent the last few years closing that gap deliberately.
K: And we underestimated how long credibility takes at decision level. The conversations were there.
But trust atthat level isn’t built in a campaign. It compounds over years.
You talk a lot about access and proximity.
What does that mean in practice?
S: It means we sit at the table where direction gets set, not between parties
carrying messages.
K: Proximity is built. It isn’t claimed. Itcomes from years of being useful before
being necessary. From having a point of view people want to test their thinking against.
You earn it.
Avenue today isn’t three founders
anymore. Around twenty people,
five divisions, Avenue Residential
added in 2025. How do you keep the
entrepreneurial edge?
H: Growth doesn’t dilute culture by accident — it dilutes it through neglect.
So we hire for posture, not just experience.
We protect the speed of internal decisions.
And we keep the founders in the rooms
that matter.
K: Avenue Residential wasn’t a category bet. It was a people bet. We brought in
partners who already operated the way we operate. That’s the only way scaling works
without losing what makes you, you.
What’s the conversation you’re having
with clients today that you weren’t
having five years ago?
S: The question used to be “what’s it worth.” Today it’s “what should this
become.” Owners aren’t asking for valuations and exit windows anymore —
they’re asking how to reposition, what to hold, what to release.
That’s a fundamentally different conversation, and it requires
a different kind of advisor in the room.
K: And it starts earlier. Five years ago a client called when a decision had to be
made. Today they call when a decision is forming.
That shift — from being consulted at the end to being part of the thinking
from the start — that’s the work we set out to do.
The Lobby is opening as part of Avenue’s
fifth anniversary. Why give the office its
own identity?
H: Because the office isn’t a back-office. It’s where the conversations that move the
sector happen. The Lobby is built for what happens before decisions become public.
K: And it forces a discipline on us. If you build a room for serious conversation, you
have to bring serious conversation to it.
The space sets the standard.
Five years from now — 2030 —
what does Avenue need to be?
H: The reference. Not the biggest firm — the one decision-makers in Belgian retail
and residential real estate call first when something matters.
S: Operating at a level where “what’s next” isn’t a tagline. It’s a description of
what we do every day.
K: A firm that’s still recognizably ours.
Same posture. Bigger room.
