Jones Lang LaSalle made several major changes at the top of its leadership, naming Lauralee Martin the firm’s new CEO of the Americas. Martin had been COO and CFO for JLL.
Martin joined Jones Lang LaSalle in 2002 as CFO and was appointed to the additional position of COO in 2005. Under her leadership, the firm maintained an investment grade balance sheet. She built the firm's energy and sustainability services business, helped structure acquisitions across its global platform and contributed to productivity growth and client service through the development of a globally unified technology platform.
Prior to joining JLL, Martin led the real estate businesses at Heller Financial, Inc. and General Electric Capital Corp. She is currently a member of the board of directors of Kaiser Aluminum, a leading producer of specialty aluminum products, and HCP Inc., a real estate investment trust focusing on properties in the healthcare industry.
Peter Roberts, JLL’s former CEO of the Americas, will become chief strategy officer. During Roberts’ 10-year tenure as CEO of the Americas, annual revenues in the region expanded six-fold through growth and transformational mergers. He also has been a member of the firm's global executive committee.
Roberts joined Jones Lang LaSalle in 1986. He has held various leadership roles at the firm, including CEO, COO and co-president of tenant representation. He was also a key member of the capital markets business.
While a search is conducted to fill Martin’s former position as CFO, Martin will retain responsibility for the post.
NREI talked to Martin about what changes are coming in 2013 and how JLL plans to deal with them as well as the difference between her management style and that of her predecessor. An edited version of that interview follows.
NREI: What are the differences between your management style and that of Peter Roberts?
Lauralee Martin: Peter and I have worked together for 11 years. I came out of a commercial finance background in real estate so I spent time lending money into the investor community around buying buildings, improving buildings, interfacing with them as they enhanced the value through leasing and other activities.
Peter came out of the markets. He was a tenant representative leasing broker in New York and had that on-the-ground experience. One might say he’d been on the other side. Both of us have deep knowledge, but a little bit of different knowledge about the industry. Other than that, I’d say that we have a tremendous drive to grow the business. Both of us are very client-focused, and I think the bottom line is that we’re pretty good at that.
NREI: In regard to JLL’s energy and sustainability services business, what is a success story that you are particularly proud of?
Lauralee Martin: I would say that we’re deep into it with every single client we touch because we know, through the economic downturn, that everything is about cost, everything is about having the most competitive building, which means the most efficient building. Those are the buildings that attract tenants.
One of the things we decided very early is that everything we did in sustainability was about enhancing the value of our clients’ real estate and have an impact. Whenever we talk about it, we’re talking about the money we save for the client and the value that creates. We’ve done high-profile things for big corporate clients, like McDonalds’ headquarters being LEED platinum. We’ve had lots of recognition with Chicago Union Station and their retrofit. You take a city like San Francisco, which is very much about sustainability, and we’ve worked on the Moscone Center there.
NREI: What issue is coming down the pike in 2013—legislative, political, regulatory, economic, etc that you believe will be particularly important for JLL?
Lauralee Martin: All of those issues have an overhang of uncertainty around them. We’re doing a couple of things to help our clients with that. We’re making sure that their real estate decisions and portfolios can be as flexible as possible so that they can be as responsive in their business around that level of uncertainty.
Whether you look at what is happening with banks and interest rates or the thought process around the fiscal cliff, all of them are about continuing to deal with the deleveraging that is going on around the world and deleveraging generally means slower growth.
NREI: Is it difficult to have all those things in such a state of flux?
Lauralee Martin: We like certainty. Of course we’d love that. But I think that good strong companies take others’ uncertainty to their advantage. I’m proud to say that coming out of my CFO position and moving into the Americas business, JLL is very strong financially and the Americas business is continuing to prove that we have a real value to our clients because that’s why we’re taking so much market share. Everything is about trailblazing. I think this can be a time when the strong get stronger.
New Positions at JLL
Jones Lang LaSalle added a leadership role at the firm by creating a director of corporate solutions operations position, and named Chris Browne to the post. Chris Pesekwas promoted to director of integrated facilities management to fill Browne’s previous role.
Both Browne and Pesek have long track records in Jones Lang LaSalle’s Americas corporate solutions business. Most recently, Browne was managing director of integrated facilities management. There, he provided strategic oversight of more than 80 client accounts and managed the launch of JLL’s IntelliCommand, Ai and IFM On-Demand platforms, helping the firm enter the growing automated building services market.
Pesek has served in numerous client-service roles in the past 10 years. He began his career in Chicago as the integrated flood management area manager for Motorola.
In addition, JLL named John Bemis as Atlanta retail market lead and promoted Kristin Mueller to COO.
Bemis, formerly a director of leasing and development, will oversee Jones Lang LaSalle’s retail platform, which includes tenant representation, landlord representation services including leasing, property management, accounting services and development.
Mueller will oversee the expanded services platform in local markets and continue her leadership of the business development team. Lew Kornberg will lead the retail tenant representation business. Kimli Cross will serve as operations lead for retail agency leasing and Wally Wahlfeldt will become operations lead for retail tenant representation. The firm also has named Geno Coradini as retail market lead for the Texas/Southwest region.
C&W Promotes Busi to V&A Global Head
Cushman & Wakefield promoted John D. Busi to global head of the firm’s valuation and advisory division.
Brian Corcoran will transition from his current role as C&W’s global head of valuation and advisory to lead the company’s real estate arbitration practice in New York. Corcoran will focus on representing major Manhattan property owners on arbitrations, valuations, rent redeterminations and complex litigations.
Busi joined Cushman & Wakefield in 1981 in the firm’s property accounting group in New York and in 1990 was promoted to head the New York valuation and advisory practice. In 2004, he assumed national oversight responsibilities, where he was instrumental in doubling the firm’s office network in the U.S.
Lee & Associates Merges with Charleston Firm
Lee & Associates Charleston added four executives to its team, including J. Miles Barkley, the founder and president of The Barkley Co.
Barkley, whose company has merged into Lee & Associates Charleston, has 30 years of real estate experience in the Charleston, S.C. market and will come on board as a principal. He will focus on product and business development, brokerage and real estate management.
The other individuals joining the Lee Charleston office include Henry B. Fishburne, Jr., broker and developer; William H. Fishburne, real estate manager and broker and Wendy Mulqueen, marketing and broker/manager assistant.
Cassidy Turley Hires Two Pros
Cassidy Turley named Cathrine A. Cotman to the corporate services team as senior vice president of strategy.
Cotman will serve the company’s SunTrust account, leading portfolio optimization efforts as the bank seeks to transform its corporate real estate footprint, which currently totals 15 million sq. ft. and more than 1,600 branches. She will be based in the firm’s Charlotte, N.C. office.
She joins Cassidy Turley from Bank of America, where she led a workplace strategy and planning team overseeing a 100 million-sq.-ft. portfolio and initiatives that included call center and operations consolidation, global tech location strategy and retail wealth and mortgage sales office consolidations.
Cassidy Turley also welcomed Ted Harris to its Denver office as senior vice president. Harris specializes in office tenant representation and corporate services for the engineering, professional services and technology sectors and brings more than 19 years of commercial real estate experience to Cassidy Turley.
Harris has completed more than 2 million sq. ft. of transactions over the past nine years. He comes to Cassidy Turley from Studley Inc., where he was a managing director; he previously served in executive roles at Grubb & Ellis Co. and The Colorado Group Inc.
Carter Welcomes SVP of Development
Carter added Kyle Brock as senior vice president of development. Brock will provide executive oversight and hands-on management for Carter’s equity development group and will lead the execution of development projects. He has already taken the lead on two of Carter’s student-housing projects: Highland Square., a $40 million, 753-bed student housing community in Oxford, Miss., and a $60 million, multifamily housing development adjacent to the University of Michigan’s central campus in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Previously, Brock was senior vice president of finance at Atlanta-based Novare Group. Throughout his 13-year career, he has been responsible for all facets of development including market selection, capital structuring and procurement, construction management and lease-up and marketing.
Bradford CRE Services Hires SVP for Airport Submarket
Bradford Commercial Real Estate Services added a senior vice president and managing partner for marketing activities in the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport submarket.
Brock Wilson will concentrate on marketing and leasing the firm's industrial/flex portfolio, new business development, tenant representation and real estate brokerage throughout the airport submarket.
Wilson is marking his 11th year in commercial real estate, coming to Dallas from Houston in 2006 to lead First Industrial Trust Inc.'s North Texas office and subsequently joining Grubb & Ellis Co.
Churchill Brings on One Pro, Promotes Another
Churchill Commercial Capital Inc. hired Dorene Longfellow as a vice president and loan officer. The company also promoted Tom Ryan to vice president.
Longfellow has more than 30 years of commercial lending and banking experience and most recently served as vice president and director of the Western region for M&I Bank’s institutional real estate group.
Ryan has been with Churchill since 2005. As a loan production officer, he has financed industrial, office, multifamily, retail and medical properties located throughout the Western United States.
New CRE Firm Launched in Florida
Commercial real estate professionals Michael W. Rauch, Tom Robertson and Jack Lupo have launched CRE Florida Partners LLC, a commercial real estate company.
The firm will provide brokerage and investment services, private equity and trust services, corporate representation, property and asset management and valuation and advisory services throughout Florida.
Rauch is formerly from NAI Global and currently managing partner with Rauch, Hartman, Sherer & Co., PA. Robertson was most recently senior vice president with Jones Lang LaSalle in Boca Raton, Fla. Lupo comes from Jack Lupo Realty Co.
Managing Director Joins United Realty Capital
United Realty named Craig Eastmond a managing director at United Realty Capital.
Eastmond, who has 20 years experience in originating, structuring, underwriting and executing commercial real estate and related transactions, will be based in New York.
Prior to joining United Realty Capital, Eastmond was one of the founding principals of Allegiance Investment Advisors, a boutique private equity and structured finance shop that executed over $750 million of commercial real estate and related debt transactions. He was also previously a senior vice president in charge of the Northeast region of Deutsche Bank’s real estate mortgage conduit. In his career, he has completed more than $10 billion of commercial real estate and related finance deals.
CBRE Hires Five New Pros
CBRE Group Inc. appointed Brian McAuliffe as senior managing director of the company’s multi-housing group.
The new appointment marks a homecoming for McAuliffe, who had spent more than two decades, from 1983 to 2005, at CBRE representing institutional investors and public companies in multi-housing property transactions totaling approximately $4 billion.
McAuliffe rejoins CBRE from RREEF Real Estate, where he oversaw all acquisitions, dispositions and capital markets-related activities as a managing director in the firm’s transactions group.
John Sauter has joined CBRE Global Investors as a managing director for West Coast acquisitions for the strategic partners U.S. team. In this capacity, he is responsible for originating, underwriting and structuring West Coast investments as well as development of new business opportunities.
Prior to joining the firm, Sauter was a partner with the MSD Capital L.P. real estate group, where he was responsible for sourcing, evaluating and executing transaction opportunities in traditional real estate private equity, public securities, real estate debt and corporate private equity.
CBRE also appointed Blake R. Hastings as managing director of its Minneapolis office.
Hastings succeeds Whit Peyton, who will be stepping down from that role following more than two decades of service. Hastings will be responsible for overseeing all CBRE’s operations in Minnesota.
Hastings was previously with Cassidy Turley BRE Commercial in Phoenix, where he was a senior vice president. In that role, he served commercial property owners, users, investors, and developers. He has completed more than 800 transactions with an aggregate value of $800 million during his career.
In addition, CBRE|Atlanta named Angie Leccese as marketing director of the Atlanta office. Leccese will oversee the implementation of marketing initiatives through business development, corporate communications and media relations. Prior to joining CBRE, Leccese was senior vice president, marketing at Cousins Properties Inc.
CBRE|Richmond also hired Katie Jones as real estate manager. She will oversee the daily operations of approximately 320,000 sq. ft. at a variety of properties located around Richmond and Fredericksburg, Va. She previously held the same position with CBRE’s Pittsburgh office. There, her portfolio included more than 1 million sq. ft. of retail, industrial and office properties.
Real Estate Exec Joins Coldwell Banker in Florida
Dick Miller joined Coldwell Banker Commercial Saunders Ralston Dantzler Realty in Lakeland, Fla. as associate broker. He has a 40-year background in commercial real estate as a real estate broker and developer of Winn Dixie and Publix shopping centers in Central Florida. In addition, he is the buyer’s broker for Murphy Oil Co. for Polk County, Fla.
SNR Denton Attracts New Real Estate Partner
SNR Denton hired Eddie Frastai to join the firm’s New York office as a partner in the real estate practice. Frastai has more than a decade of experience advising real estate owners, developers, operators, managers and financial institutions on a broad range of national real estate transactions pertaining to large office, hotel, retail, residential and mixed-use projects, including sales and acquisitions, joint ventures, commercial mortgage, mezzanine and construction financing, debt restructurings, discounted payoffs and commercial leasing. He joins SNR Denton from Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver and Jacobson LLP.
Retail Expert Joins DJM Realty
DJM Realty, the real estate affiliate of Gordon Brothers Group, hired Josh Podell as a specialty retail and outlet consultant.
As a retail expert in the mall and outlet arena, Podell has completed several thousand retail real estate transactions in every type of retail real estate. Prior to joining DJM Realty, he was the vice president of real estate of Jones Retail Corp. (division of Jones Apparel Group). At Jones, he helped manage the company's 1,000-store chain including brands such as Nine West, Anne Klein, Easy Spirit, Jones New York, Kasper and Bandolino.
Florida Mayor Joins Akerman Senterfitt
Juan Carlos Bermudez, the mayor of Doral, Fla., joined Akerman Senterfitt as of counsel in the firm's real estate practice group.
Bermudez will be based in Akerman's Miami office. Bermudez has been mayor since 2003 and leaves his office this month due to term limits. In his practice with Akerman, he will focus land use and zoning, governmental law and procurement and international investment. While serving as mayor, Bermudez continued to practice law, most recently with Gonzalez & Wermuth LLP.
Hughes Marino Lawyer Named to Bar Post
The San Diego County Bar Association named Hughes Marino General Counsel and Vice President Ryan McCrary as the chair of the group's real property law section.
McCrary is responsible for the legal affairs of Hughes Marino as well as tenant representation. He is a member of the State Bar of California, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the San Diego County Bar Association, and the real estate law section of that group, as well as a licensed California Real Estate Broker.
Koolen Hired by Platt Retail Institute
Platt Retail Institute welcomed Robert P. Koolen to the firm as advisor, European Union business strategy. In this role, he will serve PRI clients in the European Union by helping them establish or improve their American presence through consulting and business development services.
Most recently, Koolen served as president, international, for Four Winds Interactive. Previously, he served as president of Scala Inc., a global digital signage software company.
Sales Director Joins Behringer Harvard
Herren is responsible for developing institutional channel distribution strategies for Behringer Harvard's existing and expanding product portfolio, including sales of alternative and direct investments in the Western states. He comes to Behringer Harvard from Highland Capital Management L.P., a Dallas-based credit hedge fund.
Sales Manager Comes to MACK
MACK Cos. hired John Gutman as investor sales manager for the firm, the largest owner of single-family investment properties in the Chicago area.
Prior to joining MACK Companies, Gutman oversaw the acquisition of new investment properties and negotiation/closing of investment contracts for E.C.O. Holdings Corp., the rehabber of multi-unit, distressed properties.
Bronx Multifamily Wins Coveted ULI Award
Urban Land Institute gave the Workforce Housing Model of Excellence Award to a Bronx-based green, affordable housing development constructed by Lettire Construction Corp.—one of only three projects nationwide to receive the honor.
Via Verde, a 222-unit, eco-friendly affordable housing development co-developed by Jonathan Rose Companies and Phipps Housing, received the 2012 Jack Kemp Workforce Housing Models of Excellence Award at the national conference of Urban Land Institute (ULI) in Denver.
As general contractor, Lettire Construction shared in the award with Rose and Phipps; Dattner Architects and Grimshaw Architects, which designed Via Verde, along with Ettinger Engineering Associates, Robert Silman Associates and Lee Weintraub Landscape Architecture.
Via Verde, which opened in the summer of 2012, received LEED NC Gold Certification. It has 71 cooperative homes and 151 rentals. Residents enjoy improved indoor air quality as a result of Lettire’s utilization of green cleaning materials and materials as well as common areas powered by photovoltaic solar panels, among other amenities. The complex also has a series of green roofs with Scots Pine tree orchard, edible-fruit-bearing apple and pear trees, and gardening beds where residents can grow organic vegetables.
REBNY to Bestow Annual Awards
The Real Estate Board of New York has named the honorees of the group’s annual awards, which will be presented on January 17.
They are: Donald Zucker, chairman, Donald Zucker Co., who will receive the Bernard H. Mendik Lifetime Leadership in Real Estate Award; Mike Fishman, international executive vice president, Service Employees International Union, who will receive the Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Award; Dottie Herman, president and CEO, Douglas Elliman, who will receive the Kenneth R. Gerrety Humanitarian Award; Woody Heller, executive managing director, Studley, who will receive the Louis Smadbeck Broker Recognition Award; Dick Concannon, senior vice president, Rudin Management, who will receive the George M. Brooker Management Executive of the Year Award; and William Montana, managing director, Studley, who will receive the Young Real Estate Man of the Year Award.
NAIOP San Diego Chooses 2013 President
NAIOP San Diego has chosen John Garrigan, vice president of LBA Realty, as its 2013 president.
He will take on the role after January 1. In addition to Garrigan, the other elected board members are Tom Turner of Procopio Cory Hargreaves & Savitch as president elect; Jeff Burges of BURGES property+company as treasurer; and Brig Black of Lincoln Property Co. as immediate-past president.