Fred Smith Smith: “NGKF has offered me the opportunity to design and build an extraordinary practice.”

NEW YORK CITY—After 31 years at Cushman & Wakefield—most recently as vice chairman—Fred Smith has joined Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. The real estate professional will hold the same title with his new firm.

Smith has completed more than 30 million square feet of tenant representation assignments for major organizations, including Facebook, AT&T, Metropolitan Transit Authority, XL Global Services, CBS Corp., PwC, Oracle, Air France, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Macromedia and more.

Earlier this year, while still at Cushman, Smith lead a team that secured the leasing agency of 717 Fifth Ave.; a 350,000-square-foot Plaza District building. In 2015, Smith was responsible for sourcing in the Sears Holdings transfer of 261 stores totaling 42 million square feet, into a REIT, enabling Sears to raise approximately $2.7 billion.

Smith and his team also represented Bayern LB in the restructure of a 100,000-square-foot lease, and in selling a 25% interest in 560 Lexington Ave. In 2014 he represented Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group in a headquarter lease for 210,000 square feet at 1221 Ave. of the Americas.

With a transatlantic team, Smith represented XL Capital in its consolidation of six locations into one European headquarters in London. In that deal, a condo interest was created with Marks & Spencer and XL sold and leased back its space and took a profit of $55 million in three weeks (from purchase to close). At closing, this was the largest global transaction between Cushman & Wakefield US and European operations, and Smith received the firm’s Global Deal of the Year recognition.

With a bi-costal team, he also closed the largest sale leaseback in Silicon Valley history, the ninth largest real estate transaction in the United States that year. The transaction involved an 800,000-square-foot corporate campus synthetic lease conversion in Mt. View, CA that was sold to Goldman Sachs and now operates as Google’s headquarters.

“Distinguishing our firm is imperative for expanding our practice and NGKF has many unique beneficial features that has helped bring one of the city’s best brokers to our team,” says NGKF CEO Barry Gosin. “With the addition of Fred, our exceptional team of top tier professionals is now even stronger.”

Adds Smith, “NGKF has offered me the opportunity to design and build an extraordinary practice, based on the pillars of my past accomplishments through the distinct factors inherent in NGKF’s structure and management. The firm has many talented professionals and a broad international platform that includes leasing, a deep bench in global capital markets, corporate services and extensive consulting capability and more. That combination, and the genuine collaborative environment, greatly enhances our ability to serve our clients.”

He continues, “I have had the opportunity to work with some of the industry’s iconic figures and the good fortune of having relationships with clients where trust and integrity are first and foremost. In the course of time, this is the foundation for what I will accomplish with my new colleagues at NGKF.”