Savills’ Geoffrey Newman Wins REBNY’s 2025 Commercial Sales Award

The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) held its 82nd annual commercial sales awards for the “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year” on Monday night, with Savills’ Geoffrey Newman winning the top spot.

Newman won REBNY’s first-place award for his work in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood over the past 13 years. At 252, 254, 256 and 258 Third Avenue and 37 and 38 Gramercy Park, Newman assembled a stretch of frontage “that many viewed as effectively impossible,” as there were multiple tax complications involved, according to an announcement from REBNY.

But Newman was able to assemble “one of Gramercy Park’s last developable corners with unanimous shareholder participation, including all 32 owners of [a] 34-unit cooperative” as part of the deal, the announcement said.

Legion Investment Group and partner Gindi Capital — which Newman represented — closed on the final portion of the Gramercy Park portfolio in February 2025 after buying the co-op at 38 Gramercy Park for $47 million. All told, the project is set to be the largest new development along Gramercy Park in a century, The Real Deal reported.

“Gramercy Park is not a neighborhood where sites come together easily. This deal required 13 years of persistence, countless individual negotiations and the ability to solve one impossible problem after another,” Newman said in a statement. “I’m honored by REBNY’s recognition and proud that our team turned a site many considered unreachable into one of New York’s most compelling development opportunities.”

In second place was CBRE’s Scott Gottlieb, Brendan Herlihy and Michael Wellen, who represented Universal Music Group (UMG) in its 20-year, 336,000-square-foot lease for a new headquarters at Vornado Realty Trust’s Penn 2 in April 2025. The CBRE brokers were able to consolidate UMG’s “fragmented Manhattan footprint” into a single office in a high-visibility location, REBNY said.

Meanwhile, Cushman & Wakefield’s Mark Weiss and Jared Thal took third place for arranging a 20-year lease for law firm Goodwin Procter at BXP’s 200 Fifth Avenue in April 2025. The C&W team “undertook a thorough discovery process to understand Goodwin’s history” and chose a building that matched its future plans, according to REBNY.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.