Bill Shanahan and Doug Middleton

Doug Middleton helped his football team win the Ivy League title as a free safety in 2003, but his University of Pennsylvania classmates failed to tear down the goalposts and toss them into the Schuylkill River afterward, as per school tradition. “They were mounted pretty hard,” he said. “A lot of my friends from high school made fun of us. It was good fodder.”

Two decades later, now vice chair in CBRE’s investment sales division, Middleton has been anticipating the New York market as well as he once read college offenses. “You have to articulate the trend and the long-term rise of profitability for each asset,” he said. “The market is very unique. Every block and corner is different.”

His analysis of the market has been helpful for complex transactions such as TPG Real Estate’s loan sale at 300 Lafayette Street last summer and Sotheby’s $100 million purchase of 945 Madison Avenue in June 2023, former home to the Whitney Museum and which most recently housed the Met Breuer and Frick collections. 

“Its Brutalist architecture fits perfectly with what they want, which is to have galleries for people to come look at auctions. It’s a location that everyone in the art world knows,” Middleton said.

Over the past year, Middleton and his colleague Bill Shanahan have observed an increased interest in the Manhattan office properties they have been marketing, with 15 to 20 bidders circling each deal. Shanahan has primarily concentrated on buildings with high cash flow, which means multifamily properties; warehouse sites for distribution; buildings with data servers; and loans.

“We’re looking at buildings that tenants want to be in, and those are the buildings that usually perform well,” Shanahan said. “They don’t have to be new construction. They can be really great buildings that can be reconstructed or have outdoor spaces, amenities, great food options, and big floor plates.”

Both Shanahan and Middleton are big believers in New York City. Middleton, who has a baby on the way, couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

“It has a diversified economy and people both young and old want to reside here,” he said. “We’re going through a difficult time right now, but we think it’s going to come back in a strong way.”