Cushman & Wakefield, eager to tap into the Midwest's housing boom, has added an experienced team member to the firm's newly created Rocky Mountain residential land services division.
John Covert, a longtime Denver real estate executive with an extensive resume in work across the residential sector, has joined to help expand Cushman & Wakefield's residential land consulting, acquisition and disposition business across the region as the division's newest director.
"The Rocky Mountain region is a growing housing market," Covert said in a statement to CoStar News, adding that his focus will be concentrated on Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.
Cushman & Wakefield is launching the Rocky Mountain residential land services division as brokerages across the country create new, or fortify existing, groups that represent clients seeking land to develop multifamily and single-family rental properties and for-sale houses.
In July, Walker & Dunlop entered the land sales market when it bought Avalon Real Estate Partners of Georgia.
"With Avalon's robust pipeline of development land transactions, Walker & Dunlop has significant opportunity to expand the advisory services we provide our developer clients across all facets of the housing and broader commercial real estate market," Kris Mikkelsen, executive vice president of Walker & Dunlop investment sales, said when the deal was made.
Cities across the Mountain States quickly became pandemic hot spots among renters and homebuyers, driving prices to record highs and attracting investors that had previously passed over them in favor of top-tier markets such as San Francisco or New York City. In Denver, for example, the average per-unit price among multifamily properties has soared by more than 10% over the past year as a widening pool of buyers compete for a stake in the fast-growing area.
And for Cushman & Wakefield, that means business opportunity.
"We continue to expand our regional talent and depth in the residential sector to meet the continued demand," Steve Schwab, Cushman & Wakefield's market leader in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho, said of the firm's investment in expanding its residential services and decision to bring Covert on to help.
Covert's background has deep roots in land development, urban planning and housing economics. Prior to Cushman & Wakefield, the Colorado State University graduate — who has a bachelor's degree in land use and an MBA in marketing — was an executive at real estate analytics firm Zonda and a research manager for investment firm the Meyers Group.