Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan
Chair and Head of New York City Capital Markets; Chair of the New York City Capital Markets Group at CBRE
Last year's rank: 20
The powerhouse brokerage duo of Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan kicked off 2022 with a bang after sourcing Google’s $2.02 billion purchase of the St. John’s Terminal and pressed ahead with more big deals amid a challenging investment sales environment.
In May, the CBRE team arranged the $290 million sale of the Midtown Manhattan office building 475 Fifth Avenue to Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding from Nuveen Real Estate and Norges Bank Investment Management.
Stacom and Shanahan also shepherded a $415 million sale in July of 160 Riverside Boulevard with A&E Real Estate acquiring the 415-unit Upper West Side multifamily asset from Sam Zell’s Equity Residential. The transaction came on the heels of the firm sourcing a $266 million sale of the 354-unit 140 Riverside Boulevard in April, also to A&E from Zell. The duo closed $4.08 billion in volume across 11 total transactions for the one-year period ending April 1.
The ability to close big investment sales in New York during a period of market dislocation and rising interest rates speaks to the Big Apple’s resilience, Shanahan said.
“New York is the idea factory for the country,” Shanahan said. “All the different ways of doing real estate, all the new methods of financing or putting together capital stacks pretty much emanates out of New York, so people want to be at the center of creation.”
Stacom said New York’s strength emulates from investors who are bullish on the city’s long-term outlook. She noted that there remains strong interest in buying New York properties, including office, despite headwinds from elevated borrowing costs in a higher interest rate environment and amid increased hybrid working trends.
In addition to targeting office and multifamily deals, CBRE is heavily focused on opportunities in New York’s growing life sciences sector. Stacom and Shanahan also see potential for increased transaction activity in the medical office arena.
“Some of them may have a life science element, but that brain power that exists in the medical community here in New York is really top of the world and is a growth sector for this marketplace,” Stacom said of medical office properties. “It is one that people bucket in with life sciences, but don’t really realize what a separate driver it is.”
