Barry Gosin

When Blackstone wanted to acquire the 10.5 million-square-foot shopping center behemoth Retail Opportunity Investments Corporation (ROIC) for $4 billion, they went to Newmark to facilitate the deal.

When Jeff Soffer’s Fontainebleau Development wanted to refinance Fontainebleau Miami Beach to the tune of $1.2 billion, they went to Newmark to arrange the financing. (Newmark also arranged around the same time $550 million for Soffer to refinance the JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa.)

When Blue Owl, Primary Digital Infrastructure and Crusoe Energy Systems needed an adviser on its $3.4 billion joint venture to build a 206-megawatt, 998,000-square-foot data center in Abilene, Texas, they went to Newmark.

Newmark is not messing around. With steely determination, Barry Gosin has year by year been building his empire at Newmark, and he is far from finished.

Sensing where the market is going, Gosin last year hired Evan Williams — one of the foremost experts on Section 8 housing — to head its affordable housing debt and structured finance practice. Another (relatively recent) hire was Jonathan Firestone, who is leading Newmark’s debt markets team with Jordan Roeschlaub. That has team facilitated $40.1 billion in debt deals nationally in the last 13 months. Oh, and did we mention that Newmark is building a 1,000-person team in Europe, having opened offices in Germany and France, and just hired another 50 people in India?

But, then, Newmark has been building for a long time. While Firestone is new, the finance team has been at the top of that business for a few years. Likewise, when Gosin lured Douglas Harmon and Adam Spies to lead Newmark’s capital markets operation, he nabbed one of the very best teams in commercial real estate (and also good enough to merit their own spot on this list at No. 17). 

And they haven’t disappointed. With everything from the historic sale of Signature Bank’s assets in 2023, to representing Morgan Stanley in the $360 million sale of Two Park Avenue to Haddad Brands, which closed less than two weeks into this year, Harmon and Spies have proved a good return on investment for Newmark. And, if the Haddad sale says anything about the direction of 2025, we expect more very notable things from Barry Gosin’s firm soon.