Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group Tapped to Serve Clients in Philly Metro Market

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., April. 27, 2010 – Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.’s Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group today announced the geographic expansion of its multi-family investment sales practice to include the Philadelphia Metro market, including Southern New Jersey and Delaware. Based in East Rutherford, N.J., the team specializes exclusively in real estate sales, joint ventures and financing across product types; and has a deeply rooted clientele of active investors in the New York tri-state regional market.

Until now, the Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group has focused on client assignments in Northern New Jersey; the State of New York outside of New York City; and Fairfield County, Conn. Since 2004, the team has completed approximately $2 billion worth of multi-family sales in this market area. Among them, it recently orchestrated the $71 million trade of Fox Run Apartments in Plainsboro, N.J., which represented the Garden State’s largest multi-family rental property sale of 2009.

“The Philadelphia, South Jersey and Delaware market is a natural extension for us,” noted Andrew Merin, vice chairman and head of the Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group, who has spearheaded his team’s emergence as a dominant player in the multi-family arena with team members David Bernhaut, Gary Gabriel and Brian Whitmer.

“Cushman & Wakefield’s Philadelphia team already has an established presence on the ground, with a well-qualified team of professionals in this dynamic market,” he continued. “We will augment its efforts, capabilities and reach by bringing in our skills set and access to a rich buyer base from the New York area.”

According to Whitmer, this expanded regional approach will enable the team to enhance service for its clients. “We now cover a major geographic span for multifamily from upstate New York to western Pennsylvania,” he said. “Many of the private and institutional investors with whom we have relationships are active throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions as buyers and sellers. We look forward to assisting them with their multi-family investments in Pennsylvania.”

John Derham, branch manager for Cushman & Wakefield’s Philadelphia office, further echoed these benefits. “Andy, Brian and the rest of the Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group have led our company as a prominent force in the New York/New Jersey region for many years” he said. “We welcome them as an extension of our local team and look forward to working with them to benefit our clients and the growth of the Cushman & Wakefield organization within the multifamily arena here.”

“Karen Iman, senior director of our Philadelphia-based capital markets team, will work closely with the group from New Jersey as the local anchor to launch and execute multifamily investment sales” added Paul Torosian, who heads Cushman & Wakefield’s Philadelphia capital markets practice.

The Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group has completed more than $13.7 billion worth of office, industrial, retail, multifamily and land transactions since 2000. Over the past four years, this included an average of more than $1.5 billion annually. In 2009, despite a sluggish investment sales environment, the team closed 20 deals with a cumulative value of $751 million ‚ nearly 43 percent of its market area’s total activity. Real Estate Alert reported the Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group as having the highest reported market share ‚ 73.4 percent in the largest, non-CBD market it tracked last year, and cited the team as responsible for two of the nation’s top 20 office sales.