Commercial real estate veteran Don Land has joined Cushman & Wakefield/Gateway Commercial in St. Louis as a senior director and head of its new Investment Properties & Asset Resolution Group. The new entity will serve public and private real estate owners, institutional investors and lenders to optimize the value of their real estate holdings through acquisitions and dispositions.

Among other services, the new entity will provide property management and leasing services to maximize the value of a property before bringing it to the for-sale market. Additionally, the Investment Properties & Asset Resolution Group will serve as a lender’s representative while distressed properties are in receivership. The announcement of the new practice group came March 8.

Under Land’s direction, Gateway has already secured two projects — one a receivership assignment from Bank of America for a large retail center in outstate Missouri; the other for St. Louis-based Citizen’s Bank involving a 63,000 sq. ft. retail center in Cottleville, Mo.

The creation of the new practice group makes Gateway one of a select few fully integrated firms based in St. Louis with full-service capabilities in investment and institutional property management, leasing and asset disposition.

Land’s commercial real estate career spans nearly 25 years. From 1998 to December 2009, he was a principal and senior vice president with local real estate developer Balke Brown Associates. He has developed more than four million sq. ft. of office, industrial and multifamily properties valued at over $335 million during his career.

Land has been instrumental in the sale or acquisition of 20 Class-A office or industrial buildings with a cumulative value of $735 million. Many of the transactions involved Fortune 500 firms.

The product of a merger between Cushman & Wakefield of Missouri and St. Louis-based Summit Realty Group, Gateway Commercial is an independently owned and operated member of the Cushman & Wakefield Alliance. The relationship provides Gateway clients with access to the global services platform of New York-based Cushman & Wakefield, the giant privately owned real estate services firm.