Barry Gosin, Jimmy Kuhn and David Falk

In the hunt for Class A space, Newmark led the pack, closing deals for big names such as Microsoft and doubling its revenue from 2020. 

While Barry Gosin, Jimmy Kuhn and David Falk have many talents beyond dealmaking — Kuhn plays “everything from the Eagles to Fleetwood Mac” in a classic rock cover band — chief among their skills was convincing BH2, one of the most well-known real estate companies in London, to sell itself to Newmark this spring.

“Buying BH2 in London is an example of buying best in class,” Gosin said. “​​It’s always a challenge to convince someone that you are the right platform to be partnering with them. … Anything that is worthwhile takes work.”

Gosin believes flexible office space will grow in popularity, and Newmark purchased Deskeo, the French flex office company, last year — adding to Newmark-owned Knotel’s footprint of flexible office space.  

On this side of the Atlantic, Newmark had some victories as well. Falk and a Newmark team represented The Bromley Companies in Microsoft’s 150,000-square-foot lease for 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District and brought 1 World Trade Center to 96 percent leased — three percentage points higher than before the pandemic began.

“We were able to fill the building up with companies that were emerging and growing, and it’s now become the epicenter in New York for high-growth companies,” Falk said.  

Kuhn predicts that Class A space like 1 WTC will continue to do well, while lower-quality space should be turned into residential housing with the help of Albany and the City Council.

“People have been talking about what remote work is going to do to the New York office market, and I don’t think that’s the issue. I think the
question now in today’s world is more about functional obsolescence,” Kuhn said. “There’s an opportunity for a significant segment of the office market inventory to be re-evaluated and either redeveloped into more functional and modern assets, or potentially re-purposed for other uses.”

Kuhn, who was keeping his eye on data centers, life sciences, industrial and film production space last year, said he’s doing much of the same in 2022. Added to that list is student housing and cold storage — a sector particularly important given the need to keep COVID-19 vaccines at low temperatures before use.

Update: This story has been updated to indicate that Newmark worked on a lease deal for Microsoft in 2021, not AlphaSights.