Brokerage CBRE Group bought out its joint venture partner in CBRE Raleigh in North Carolina, and said the office's 115 brokerage, property management and support professionals will join the firm. Tom Fritsch, who has led the office covering North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham and the Triad markets since 2013, will remain the business unit's leader. Fritsch will report to Chris Connelly, East region president of CBRE’s advisory services group. The growing region has seen an increase in its concentration of life science companies, and that presents an opportunity for CBRE to expand its business there, the firm said. “After more than two decades of partnership, this transaction is a natural evolution of our longstanding relationship with CBRE," Fritsch said in a statement.

JLL Capital Markets has recruited investment sales broker Steven Binswanger from Eastdil Secured in New York City. In his new role at JLL, Binswanger will provide investment advisory services to JLL’s major clients locally and globally, the brokerage said. A 15-year industry veteran, Binswanger previously served as a managing director at Eastdil Secured, where he also was co-head of the firm's New York City equity sales business. During his time at Eastdil Secured, he was involved in transactions with an aggregate value of more than $50 billion. The deals included the privatization of Columbia Property Trust, Blackstone’s recapitalization of BioMed and the capitalization of Innovo Property Group’s mixed-use development of the Borden Complex in the Long Island City section of New York.

Brian Reames, who led Highwoods Properties' Nashville market for 26 years before retiring in 2022, has joined Magnolia Investment Partners in the Tennessee capital. In his new role, Reames will serve as co-manager of the new Magnolia Strategic Opportunity Fund, the firm said. He brings in-depth knowledge of and connections in the market, Magnolia managing partner Ben Bonner said. As Nashville market leader at Highwoods, Reames was responsible for more than 5 million square feet of development and acquisitions in the region, including the new headquarters for LifePoint Hospitals, Mars Petcare, Asurion, and Bridgestone North America. He also oversaw for Highwoods Charlotte in North Carolina, Memphis in Tennessee, and Greenville and Columbia in South Carolina.

Retail real estate firm Big V Property Group appointed Eric Zimmermann, who made his mark as an investment sales broker at Eastdil Secured, as chief acquisitions officer. Zimmermann had been serving as Charlotte, North Carolina-based Big V Property's interim chief acquisitions officer. Appointing him to the permanent position marks a significant step in the company's growth and expansion strategy, Big V Property said. Zimmermann has been involved in several high-profile transactions including the $660 million sale of Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri, and the $494 million sale of the Avalon mixed-use development in Alpharetta, Georgia. All told, he's worked on retail deals with a total value of more than $30 billion. Big V President and CEO Jeffrey Rosenberg said Zimmermann also will join both the firm's executive committee and investment committee.

Lee & Associates Maryland has promoted Marley Welsh, who joined the firm in 2013, to principal. Welsh, who previously was a vice president at the brokerage, is part of the three-broker team that includes principal Kate Jordan and associate Samantha Eckels. The group advises tenants, landlords, investment groups and institutional owners of commercial real estate and focuses primarily on flex office and warehouse and industrial properties throughout the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., region. In 2023, the Jordan-Welsh-Eckels team executed nearly 75 commercial real estate transactions with an aggregate value of about $25 million. As for Welsh, who's based in Columbia, Maryland, she has developed a specialization representing brewing companies in their real estate needs. Over the past eight years, she has been involved in leases for seven breweries and one distillery. Welsh represented Cult Classic Brewing Co. in its 24,000-square-foot lease of a former ACME Supermarket in Stevensville, Maryland, and found space in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, that enabled Crooked Crab Brewing Co. to double its size, Lee said. Prior to joining Lee & Associates, Welsh worked as a senior marketing professional at Cushman & Wakefield of Maryland.

Kidder Mathews expanded its healthcare brokerage team in Phoenix with Zack Harris, who previously served as a global sales account executive at Amazon. Harris joined the Kidder Mathews healthcare real estate team of Michael Dupuy, Fletcher Perry, Perry Gabuzzi, Rachael Thompson and Chad Sutton.

Harris adds an analytical perspective and experience in investment strategy to the brokerage, Kidder Mathews said. The firm said its healthcare team has completed nearly 700 transactions totaling 4 million square feet of space and have an aggregate value of nearly $650 million. In addition to investment sales, the team works in landlord and tenant representation, and demographic and market analysis.

JLL has added May Vlaming, who has more than 20 years of experience in the construction industry, as senior vice president of its project and development services, or PDS, group in Austin, Texas. Tony Linker, JLL's PDS South Central region lead, said Vlaming's knowledge of and experience in the Austin area will help expand the group's business in the region. Vlaming spent the previous four years at commercial construction firm MAPP, where while serving as a vice president and business unit leader, she led the growth of the firm's Austin office from its inception. Before joining MAPP in late 2019, she worked at Harvey-Cleary, Clune Construction and Shangri-la Construction.

Transwestern Real Estate Services, or TRES, has hired Kevin Gummerus, who spent nearly 18 years overseeing engineering at properties across the globe at Hines, as vice president of national engineering services. In this leadership role based in Houston, Gummerus will guide engineering teams across several markets and property types to optimize building performance, TRES said.

As global senior corporate engineering manager at Hines, Gummerus led engineering operations at more than 685 properties 335 cities in 30 countries and worked with over 2,000 facility and engineering team members. Transwestern manages more than 900 projects containing a total of over 232 million square feet across the United States.