Bria ‘Jojo’ Lewis, 29

After earning a business management master’s degree from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, Brooklyn native Jojo Lewis started pounding the pavement for CBRE in 2019.

While Lewis works in landlord and tenant representation now, it wasn’t always so.

She kicked off her career at the brokerage as a diversity scholar building out CBRE’s business development in Washington, D.C., for the Federal Lessor Advisory Group and then became a research assistant for the managing director of the office in the nation’s capital.

In January 2020, Lewis made it back to New York City as a transaction specialist with CBRE until becoming a broker in April 2022, working directly with Dean Rosenzweig, Jeremy Scholder, Stefani Steinberg and Christopher Betting.

“For New York City, and the boroughs specifically, they’re unique in what they can offer to some brands — like if you’re thinking about tenants, this is where people post-COVID are now living, working and playing,” said Lewis, who also earned an international studies degree at Connecticut’s Trinity College and once worked as a flight attendant for Republic Airways. “That’s activated the market on all cylinders, where both landlords and tenants are navigating a world where there’s more daytime population and a need for experiences that are closer to home.”

Lewis’s team has helped negotiate retail deals on behalf of Barclays Center in Brooklyn — with tenants such as juice bar chain Pure Green, as well as a deli — and she also had a hand in helping Fleet Feet find a new location in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Lewis is also working to secure charter school and nonprofit tenants for the owners of 565 Morris Avenue in the Bronx where the Harriet Tubman Sheltering Arm education center is located and operated by the New York City Department of Education.