Cushman & Wakefield Fired by Brookfield as Investment Sales Team Departs for Newmark
By Mark Hallum November 2, 2023 5:16 pm
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Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) has had a hard day at the office.
The brokerage has been fired from handling office and logistics listings in the U.S. by Brookfield Properties, and, to add insult to injury, its employees are still being poached by rival Newmark (NMRK), according to reports.
Brookfield’s massive scale makes it a golden goose for any brokerage, and the falling out between C&W and Brookfield may have happened after the brokerage backed out of a deal to move from 1290 Avenue of the Americas to Brookfield’s 660 Fifth Avenue, according to Bloomberg.
“We’re proud of the work and long-standing value our brokerage advisory professionals helped to build into Brookfield’s portfolio,” a spokesperson for C&W said in a statement to Commercial Observer. “While completely surprised by this reaction, we consider disciplined management in the best interest of our firm, employees and shareholders.”
Brookfield declined to comment.
And to make Thursday worse, investment sales brokers Dan O’Brien, Eric Roth and Maurice Suede jumped ship to Newmark, joining powerhouses Doug Harmon and Adam Spies who made the same move in February. News of the job changes was first reported in The Real Deal.
O’Brien, Roth and Suede will launch a new sales team called the “New York Private Capital Group” to focus on smaller institutional investors.
“The launch of the New York Private Capital Group underpins our dedication to providing comprehensive advisory services to our clients and further accelerates our progress to become the most sought-after capital markets firm in the world,” Barry Gosin, Newmark’s CEO, said in a statement. “We are uniquely positioned to capitalize on a new era for our industry with our world-class bench of talent and services.”
In response to an inquiry on the most recent departures, a spokesperson from C&W referred CO to CEO Michelle McKay’s remarks during the firm’s second-quarter earnings call.
“I think that we are in a particularly educated seat when it comes to broker retention,” McKay said at the time. “So if we have an individual or a group that’s been working for us, we have somewhere between five to 10 years of the financial history of that individual or team. And we know if they’re enterprise positive or negative. So we have perfect information when we make a decision about who to offer retention to and who not to offer retention to.”
C&W has been cutting costs to reduce debt and reduce its leverage by about $200 million, according to its third-quarter results. It experienced a net loss of $33.9 million during that period, according to Bisnow.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
