Prominent Retail Broker Brad Mendelson Dies at 76

C. Bradley Mendelson, known throughout New York City’s real estate world as “Brad,” died Dec. 20 at the age of 76.

For more than four decades, Mendelson was one of the driving forces behind the evolution of Manhattan’s retail landscape, helping to shape Fifth Avenue and Times Square into global shopping destinations.

Along the way, he built a legendary brokerage career marked by prominent retail deals and unconventional thinking. Mendelson’s most celebrated achievement came in 2000, when he brokered the groundbreaking 105,000-square-foot lease that brought Toys “R” Us to Times Square at 1530 Broadway and created what became the world’s largest toy store. The deal earned the Real Estate Board of New York’s award for Most Creative Retail Deal of the Year, an honor Mendelson would receive again in 2011 for leasing the historic Times Square Theatre on West 42nd Street.

Alongside longtime partners David A. Green, Steve Soutendijk and Alan Schmerzler, Mendelson helped shape retail shopping experiences at properties such as 666 Fifth Avenue — where he leased approximately 125,000 square feet to Hollister, Uniqlo and The Swatch Group — and the nearby St. Regis retail condominium on Fifth Avenue, which was leased in its entirety to the Swatch Group for luxury brands including Harry Winston and Blancpain.

He represented building owners such as BXP, the Carlyle Group, Kushner Companies, L&L Holding, Wharton Properties, Tishman Speyer, the Trump Organization and the Witkoff Group. Meanwhile, his tenant clients ranged from Omega and Breguet to Gap, Calvin Klein, Planet Hollywood and Sony.

Mendelson began his brokerage career with prominent retail broker Charles Aug at the first-ever retail-focused brokerage, Garrick-Aug Associates.

“Brad was an utter professional and was among the first brokers to specialize in retail,” said Benjamin Fox, who also worked at Garrick-Aug.

Mendelson later joined the Edward S. Gordon Company (ESG) as one of the firm’s earliest retail brokers. During Mendelson’s more than two decades at ESG and its eventual merger into CBRE, he rose to executive managing director of retail.

In 2004, he joined Cushman & Wakefield as executive vice president, serving on the firm’s U.S. and global retail executive committees and helping grow its retail division from a handful of brokers to a major national platform. Then, in 2016, Mendelson and Green joined Colliers as vice chairmen and co-leaders of the New York retail group.

A graduate of Parsons College, Mendelson lived in London in the 1960s and 1970s near the legendary King’s Road in Chelsea, spending his time as a working musician and studio drummer and crossing paths with members of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

He even trained as a hairdresser, working directly for Vidal Sassoon — an early chapter that reflected the creativity, boldness and flair that would later define his professional career.

Mendelson ultimately found his calling in commercial real estate, where his imagination and instinct for people proved transformative, leading to a legendary brokerage career marked by landmark deals and unconventional thinking.

He also shared his expertise as an adjunct professor at New York University’s School of Continuing Education, mentoring the next generation of real estate professionals.

Mendelson is survived by his ex-wife Lynn; daughters Nicole Mendelson Devlin and Amber Thompson Sager; grandchildren Liam Matthew Devlin and Charlotte Beatrice Devlin; and his sister, Catherine Mendelson. He was preceded in death by his son, Matthew Mendelson.