Will Hutton.
Will Hutton, 27
Director of acquisitions and capital markets at Nightingale Group
Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few years, you know the Nightingale Group is a force to be reckoned with. From its acquisition (and flip) of the Coca-Cola building at 711 Fifth Avenue, to its purchase and forthcoming redevelopment of 111 Wall Street, the firm is an active and savvy market participant.
Instrumental to Nightingale’s growth in recent years has been Will Hutton, who is responsible for the firm’s acquisitions, dispositions, refinancing, capital raising and capital markets activities. In recent years, he’s been responsible for more than $4 billion in transactions at Nightingale, more than $2 billion of which were in New York City.
The son of a lawyer and an interior designer, Hutton was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas. He majored in applied economics and management at Cornell University with a minor in real estate. While there, he was a star on the football team, president of his fraternity, and — as an undergraduate student— a graduate-level teaching assistant to the master’s in real estate program. Phew.
For Hutton, the biggest challenge at the onset of the pandemic was not being in the office and collaborating with his team, but, “COVID didn’t slow us down,” he said.
During the pandemic, Nightingale put a few deals into contract, including its second life sciences project. The firm is also currently in the market for an $860 million redevelopment loan for 111 Wall Street.
“The future of office will continue to evolve,” he said. “Creative disruption only leads to advancement for mankind. I think there will be a flight to quality; however, I do not think the work-from-home trend will cause the death of the office by any means, and buildings will become more technologically advanced. This pandemic shall pass and, as an industry, we will be stronger and better positioned than before — some more than others.”
The pandemic also made Hutton realize the strength of the team that he’s on.
“As a vertically integrated owner-operator and investor, all of our units mobilized extremely fast, efficiently and with laser-like focus in response to COVID,” Hutton said. “It was incredible to watch the seamless collaboration between all of our departments, which maximized results and delivered best-in-class service for our tenants, investors, vendors and lenders. That’s why people choose to do business with us. No detail is too small, and no mountain is too big to move.”
Hutton describes Nightingale’s pipeline as “very deep. However, as a prudent steward of institutional capital, we are hyper-selective on the opportunities we pursue.”
Hutton got his market start running the acquisitions platform at Cohen Equities, where he invested in distressed and real estate-owned properties. He joined the Nightingale team in 2016 and hasn’t looked back.
