This week's People of Note includes the following markets: Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Milwaukee/Madison, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, South Florida, Washington, DC.
LOS ANGELES
Cockrum Joins Lowe Enterprises Investors as SVP
By Laurie Forbes
Lowe Enterprises Investors hired William M. Cockrum IV as senior vice president to head the company’s marketing and capital raising efforts. He will be based in the Los Angeles office of the real estate investment management firm.
Cockrum spent the past two years as chief investment officer of L.A.-based Genton Property Group. He also served as president of Barrow Street Capital and oversaw its West Coast office and fundraising efforts, plus he headed Merrill Lynch’s West Coast real estate investment banking group. Cockrum also was CFO and CIO for LandCap Partners, a national residential investment business sponsored by Goldman Sachs’ Whitehall Funds and NorthStar Realty Finance Corp.
Editor's Note: CoStar's People of Note is published each Friday covering the latest commercial real estate executive level promotions and new hires. Click on the headline of each article to jump to full coverage. Follow the news on Twitter @LaurieForbes and @TheCoStarGroup.
CHICAGO
Goldwasser Brings Industrial Team to C&W
By Laurie Forbes
Larry Goldwasser (pictured), a former NAI Hiffman senior vice president and top 10 producer, and his team of industrial brokers joined the Chicago office of Cushman & Wakefield of Illinois. Goldwasser will serve as senior director of the industrial group.
The team will work on buildings and land in the Western Cook, O’Hare, city of Chicago and northwest Indiana markets. Goldwasser’s client roster includes KTR Capital Partners, CenterPoint Properties, ML Realty Partners, Kraft Foods, City of Chicago Park District, Coca-Cola, ProLogis and Hilton Hotels. His group will focus on tenants, owners and developers on industrial sale, leasing and build-to-suit projects.
“Larry has a track record of tremendous success, as well as a strong reputation within the industry and deep relationships with top developers and owners. He and his team will significantly strengthen our industrial brokerage service offering in Chicago,” said Shawn P. Mobley, C&W Chicago market leader.
The new additions included industrial property and land specialists Anthony Leeds, Jay Maher and Colin Green.
Maher’s client list included Midwest Canvass, Dentsply, Kugmann Associates, Maroon Inc. and Tuffshed. He was a broker at Grubb & Ellis before joining NAI. Leeds has represented Dynamic Manufacturing, IDI, KTR and Village of Bellwood Property. He was a broker at Darwin Realty & Development for four years before moving to NAI. Green has worked with Avgeris and Associates Inc., Chicago Coating Co., Pacific Furniture and El Mestizo Candy Distributors. Green was at Chicago Industrial Real Estate prior to NAI.
NEW YORK CITY
Corporate RE Executive Joins Jones Lang LaSalle
By Laurie Forbes
Jones Lang LaSalle appointed financial services expert Mark Melas to its banking industry group in New York City. He assumed the role of account director after serving 16 years as a corporate real estate executive with HSBC. Melas will work with financial institutions looking to drive business growth, mitigate risk and reduce costs with their national real estate portfolios.
“Mark joins our team at an especially critical time in the evolution of the financial services industry, and we know that our clients will benefit from his ability to understand the real estate nuances of this industry in particular. He’s got agility in that he can tackle global issues that banks face right now, like reducing real estate footprints on a large scale, so that they can focus more time on their customers,” said Stuart Hicks, president of JLL’s banking industry group.
Melas was in charge of HSBC’s corporate real estate across North America and also was responsible for its assets in South America. Prior to his work at the global bank, he served with NYNEX (now Verizon) in its corporate real estate division for 17 years. His practice area included business unit interface and alignment, strategic planning, portfolio optimization and master plan development and oversight of office and retail projects.
WASHINGTON, DC
Davis Joins Monday Properties as SVP/Director of Leasing
By Brandon Coffer
Holly Davis, a former managing director in the Washington office of Jones Lang LaSalle, joined Monday Properties as senior vice president and director of leasing for the firm's regional portfolio.
Davis spent 10 years at JLL where she developed more than 5 million square feet of new agency assignments. Prior to that role, she was the national real estate director for Elink Communications, a privately held commercial broadband company based in Bethesda, MD, and a senior vice president and director of asset management at The JBG Companies before that.
Monday Properties is the largest owner, operator and developer in the Rosslyn submarket. The firm recently recapitalized its 10-building, 3.2 million-square-foot Rosslyn portfolio with Goldman Sachs & Co.
CHICAGO
John Buck Tenant Rep Team Joins Studley
By Ben Paul
Studley expanded its Chicago tenant advisory team on Monday, with the hiring of Greg Gerber (pictured) as executive vice president and three others from the John Buck Co.
Gerber, who joined JBC in 2000 after 12 years with Studley, decided to return to the company after JBC's recent announcement that it was discontinuing its tenant advisory services. Managing directors Sarah Cogswell and Chris Tarzon as well as assistant director Scott Merz also made the move from JBC.
Gerber has served as president of the JBC Foundation, board chair of LEARN Charter School Network and worked with various other Chicago charities. In his new role at Studley, he will lead the office's young professional mentoring program.
DALLAS/FORT WORTH
Bradford Adds Gray as SVP/Managing Partner
By Chris Woodall
Veteran broker Jennifer Gray, CCIM joined Bradford Commercial Real Estate as senior vice president and managing partner. Gray is now part of the firm’s 25-member brokerage team, which serves clients in the Dallas/Fort Worth market.
The 27-year commercial real estate professional has operated her own firm since 2001, focusing on northeast Tarrant and Denton counties. Her specialty is working with developers and existing property owners on land acquisition, project development, lease-up and disposition. The addition will maintain Gray's location at Southlake Town Square, which has become Bradford's newest office.
SOUTH FLORIDA
NAI/Merin Hunter Codman Promotes Paul to CEO
By CoStar Research
NAI/Merin Hunter Codman promoted Jordan C. Paul to the newly created position of CEO at the South Florida commercial real estate services provider and tasked him with accelerating the firm's statewide growth. He has been with the firm for one year and previously served as chief operating officer.
As CEO, Paul will direct business development for the firm and head its brokerage, construction and property management operations as well as overseeing the firm’s financial performance. The firm has been headed by Chairman Neil E. Merin and senior principals of the firm. Paul will continue to report to Merin.
Paul has been credited with helping the firm expand its commercial property management services and its role in selling or repositioning distressed assets by focusing on Receivership services on behalf of Florida courts and owners/investors of distressed real estate. Over the past two years, NAI/Merin Hunter Codman said it has also expanded its commercial real estate brokerage staff and launched a specialized retail property services group.
Paul is an attorney by training who served as senior managing director at Related Group of Florida prior to joining NAI/Merin Hunter Codman in early 2011. Prior to that, he served as the senior corporate officer responsible for distressed asset investing and building special servicing divisions for two publicly traded companies, Allied Capital and Ocwen Financial Corp. Earlier in his career, he served as a real estate and bankruptcy attorney with the Philadelphia law firm of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen.
PHILADELPHIA
Schwacke Rejoins Grubb & Ellis
By Vickie Katlic
Alfred W. Schwacke brings back his expertise to Grubb & Ellis’ Philadelphia office as a senior vice president.
Schwacke opened the Philadelphia office of Oliver Realty in 1980, and the firm was subsequently acquired by Grubb & Ellis in 1986. During his tenure, Schwacke grew the office into a major regional firm with multiple service lines, including transaction management, property management, architectural services and construction management. He played a key role in establishing relationships with such major institutional owners as Prudential and Teachers Insurance and corporate tenants including Towers Perrin, Colonial Penn Life Insurance, PSFS and Campbell Soup.
In 1996, Schwacke opened the real estate division of Legg Mason, which was later acquired by Northmarq Advisors. As executive vice president, his responsibilities included the development of corporate service accounts and oversight of client relationships. He also focused on brokerage of investment and industrial properties and portfolios, and provided consulting expertise to developers and owners.
In 1996, he moved to Legg Mason's real estate division and remained when Northmarq Advisors acquired the division.
MILWAUKEE/MADISON
NAI MLG Taps Vanevenhoven as Principal
By Donna Stokes
NAI MLG Commercial in Brookfield, WI, named Brian J. Vanevenhoven as principal.
Vanevenhoven joined NAI MLG in 2000 and the following year became a retail associate. NAI MLG Commercial awarded Vanevenhoven the "Rookie of the Year" award in 2002 and in 2006 he was promoted to vice president and then one year later, received another promotion to senior vice president of retail.
"Brian has consistently been one of our top producers for many years. He has worked with, and gained respect of, national, regional and local retail clients, managing all aspects of the relationship and transaction," said Brian Westling, president and principal at NAI MLG Commercial.
WASHINGTON, DC
Mahady Moves To Cassidy Turley, Will Oversee Gov't Services Team
By Omar S. McKeithan
Veteran real estate broker Patrick Mahady joined Cassidy Turley as senior managing director in the firm's Washington, DC office, where he will oversee the firm's Government Services Group.
Mahady negotiated his first federal real estate transaction in 1984, putting the Justice Dept. in the Bond Building at 1400 New York Ave. NW. Since then, he has completed over 40 full-building transactions and 12 million square feet of leases involving federal government tenants.
Mahady joins Cassidy Turley from CBRE Group, which he joined as a result of the July 2003 merger between CBRE and Insignia/ESG. He started in 1983 with Barnes Morris and Pardoe, a predecessor firm to Insignia/ESG.
PITTSBURGH
Matt Returns to HFF Pittsburgh as Managing Director
By Greg Charlton
HFF named Nicholas Matt as the managing director in its Pittsburgh office. Matt will focus on debt investment sales transaction for all property types with a specialized focus on multi-housing throughout the northeastern United States
Matt worked at HFF for more than 10 years as an analyst and later a managing director before spending two years as a senior vice president in CBRE's debt and equity finance department. Prior to working for HFF, he spent nearly 10 years employed with "Big Four" accounting firms.
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