Transwestern Snags Connor McCarthy From Miller Walker to Lead Retail Services in Mid-Atlantic
By Keith Loria January 25, 2022 10:42 am
reprints
Transwestern Real Estate Services has appointed Connor McCarthy as its new director of retail services, charged with leading and growing the company’s leasing presence in the mid-Atlantic region.
“Initially, my role will be to assist the local Transwestern leasing teams with any current retail needs,” McCarthy told Commercial Observer. “At the same time, I’ll be sourcing new landlord and tenant clients while developing an appropriate model to efficiently build a dedicated retail team.”
McCarthy joined Transwestern from Miller Walker, where he spent nearly eight years representing landlords and tenants in leasing nearly 1 million square feet of retail and restaurant space with an aggregate value of more than $85 million.
The last deal McCarthy completed before leaving Miller Walker was representing Fit District, a startup fitness concept with a café.
“They are under construction on about 6,500 square feet of space at 2300 Wilson Boulevard in Arlington Va.,” he said. “We identified 2300 Wilson and started negotiating as COVID hit. There were many hurdles throughout the entire process, but it’s always fun to get through a challenge and to see someone’s dream come to a reality, especially through a historically tough time.”
When describing the D.C. market in early 2022, McCarthy used the word “resilient.”
“COVID was supposed to crush the industry and while there was a lot of heartache, I think we’ve seen a lot more stories of resilience,” he said. “Retailers had to adapt, almost overnight, to a totally new world and a lot of those adaptations are here to stay. More specifically, we are seeing the most momentum in the ‘live, work, play’ submarkets.”
For example, he pointed to the Capitol Riverfront which continued to be a desirable retail submarket throughout COVID-19 because of its residential density, solid office density and proximity to Nationals Stadium.
“Neighborhoods in D.C. and the surrounding suburbs will be the most desirable real estate for retailers going forward,” McCarthy said. “I look forward to building relationships this year both inside and outside the company and leveraging Transwestern’s robust resources to provide retail tenants and owners with valuable knowledge and insights to help them make the best business decisions.”
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.
