Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan.
Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan
Chairman and Head of New York City Capital Markets; Chairman of the NYC Capital Markets Group at CBRE
Last year's rank: 17
Commercial Observer ended 2021 lamenting that the city hasn’t seen a 10-figure investment sales deal since 2019, but the powerhouse duo of Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan made us eat our words.
The CBRE team just beat the 2021 ball drop in late December when it brokered the $1.033 billion purchase of 441 Ninth Avenue, known as Hudson Commons, by Cove Property Group and the Baupost Group from CommonWealth Partners.
And Stacom and Shanahan already made sure 2022 has a 10-figure deal to hang its hat on with Google’s $2.02 billion purchase of the St. John’s Terminal.
All told, the duo and their 16-person team have closed on more than $14 billion worth of deals — including financing — in the New York area since 2021. That includes $6.1 billion of investment sales in 2021, and they have already pulled in $3.7 billion of investment sales in 2022.
“When things are somewhat unstable, when people are going to work from home, that’s the time that people make their fortunes in New York City,” Stacom said. “Companies get born out of this stuff.”
Aside from the massive Hudson Commons sale, the team also brokered the $750 million sale of Black Rock at 51 West 52nd Street, CalSTRS picking up a 49 percent stake in 1177 Avenue of the Americas for $859 million, and Vornado Realty Trust nabbing a 45 percent stake of 1 Park Avenue for $875 million. The team also earned the Real Estate Board of New York’s Most Ingenious Deal award in 2021 for the 2019 sale of 330 Madison Avenue.
And they’re on track to continue the success with the team putting up 260 and 251 Madison Avenue for sale in March 2022 (with a $600 million asking price) and already seeing a lot of interest.
But even with all those deals, Stacom said she was especially proud of her work with REBNY trying to increase diversity in the industry. REBNY’s work with Project Destined and the city’s Ladder for Leaders program has gotten plenty of job placements, with Stacom herself bringing a recent college graduate onto her team.
“We’re all working hard in the space and starting to make a difference,” said Stacom, who was awarded the Louis Smadbeck Memorial Broker Recognition Award by REBNY partly for her diversity work.
