Alejandro Alvarez.
Alejandro Alvarez, 29
Senior associate at Cushman & Wakefield
Alejandro Alvarez had room on his schedule his junior year at Lehigh University, so he decided to minor in real estate. The decision changed his life. He found that the commercial side of the field allowed him to leverage existing talents for finance (his major at Lehigh) and analysis to execute sales and service clients.
“Additionally, I liked the fact that you get to work with tangible assets that shape how our clients work every day,” Alvarez told CO.
He connected with Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) in part through Lehigh alumni, and the firm hired him on the leasing and sales side in 2014.
The biggest deal that Alvarez has been involved with since then is managing the North American portfolio of market research firm Ipsos, which involved not only helping to land the portfolio in the first place, but also assisting with negotiating a 22,500-square-foot expansion for the relocation of Ipsos’ headquarters in New York City. More recently, Alvarez played a role in securing the renewal of a two-million-square-foot portfolio contract for a global nonprofit.
As for his work in a post-COVID shutdown market, Alvarez said he anticipates helping clients to re-evaluate their needs. This includes those he was working with on expansions right before the pandemic hit.
“I’m optimistic that more companies will seek our expertise in order to reduce their occupancy costs going forward,” he said. “In a tenant’s market, our clients will be uniquely positioned to increase their leverage in a negotiation.”
