J. Alvarez, Top Beverly Hills Broker, Dies

Juan Alvarez, one of the top real estate brokers in Beverly Hills, died June 16 of a heart attack while visiting his family in his native Caracas, Venezuela. He was 48.

Alvarez was a partner and vice president of Alvarez, Hyland & Young, a boutique realty firm that he helped establish in 1977. The company has a staff of 50 and is the fourth largest office in Beverly Hills in terms of size and volume, doing $300 million in sales a year, according to Jeff Hyland, president of the firm.

Alvarez worked for another Beverly Hills broker, Stan Herman, before joining Hyland and Elaine Young to found his company.

“On a dare, he went into real estate in 1975, and within one year, he was one of the most successful brokers,” Hyland said. “Two years after he got into the business, I called him to see if he’d like to start a company with Elaine and me, and 20 minutes after we met to discuss it, we shook hands on the deal.”

Before going into real estate, Alvarez was an actor. He left Caracas as a young man for Europe, where he lived and worked in the entertainment industry. Then he married, came to the United States, was graduated from UCLA and had a son, Alexis, who is 17.

Besides his son, survivors include two brothers, three sisters and his parents.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. June 28 in St. Paul the Apostle church, 10750 Ohio Ave., Westwood.