Raymond James & Associates, which has been working to increase its presence on both U.S. coasts the past two years, has finally planted its flag in the nation’s financial capital.

The employee broker-dealer of Raymond James Financial announced that it has recruited a $900 million investment management team from J.P. Morgan Securities, giving RJA its first-ever Manhattan office.

As part of its expansion effort, RJA also created its first Boston office in March.

“It is critically important that as Raymond James & Associates continues to grow that we be strategic about establishing traditional branch offices in markets in which financial advisors live and work,” RJA President Tash Elwyn said in an interview Tuesday. “Coming to Manhattan is a core part of our growth strategy.”

He noted that the independent broker-dealer arm of Raymond James Financial, based in St. Petersburg, Fla., already has a presence in the nation’s financial center, with 10 offices in Manhattan.

But in the heart of the New York wirehouse industry, an employee broker-dealer like RJA may have great appeal to another subset of brokers.

The new RJA office will operate as Quattuor Capital Partners of Raymond James and will be located at Rockefeller Center, at 630 Fifth Avenue, where it will share space with Raymond James Public Finance Healthcare Group, according to the company.

The Quattuor team was recruited from J.P. Morgan, where it managed nearly $900 million in client assets and had more than $6.7 million in annual production, according to RJA.

Quattuor’s managing director, Howard Franzblau, said he decided to commit to RJA after flirting with the idea of going independent.

In the final analysis, he said, joining RJA as an employee operation enabled the firm to focus squarely on client service. “The corporate culture here is a breath of fresh air,” he said. “It’s a client-first mentality.”

The opening of the Manhattan office represents a milestone achievement in what has been a steady effort by Raymond James to expand its brand beyond its base in the southern U.S., according to one analyst.

“Over the last couple of years, you see them definitely, slowly but surely, marching into that national brand direction,” said Alois Pirker, research director of the wealth management division at the Aite Group, a financial services research firm in Boston.

As RJA makes its national push, an office in the nation’s financial nerve center becomes important for the recruitment of both advisors and clients, he added.

“As soon as you cross that bridge, you need that office in New York City,” Pirker said.

RJA recently opened an office in western Pennsylvania, and over the past year has opened offices in San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Ore., and the California cities of Santa Barbara and Beverly Hills, according to Elwyn.

“I would venture to believe that we are going to see Raymond James being a lot more active in other people’s turfs, in areas where traditionally the wirehouses have been the dominant forces,” Pirker said.