WASHINGTON, DC—Al Cissel has joined ARA Newmark, which is a part of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank after parent company BGC Partners acquired it last year. He will work with Executive Managing Directors Drew White and Mike Marshall, and Senior Managing Director Ryan Ogden.

An instantly-recognizable name in the CRE community here with some 35 years of experience to his credit, Cissel has helped close some $5 billion in multifamily transactions in the last five years. In 2013, he led or was involved in four of the 10 largest multifamily investment sales in the DC metro area.

Cissel was a managing director with JLL's multifamily investment sales group in Bethesda, Md., partnering with Scott Melnick on deals from Richmond/Tidewater to Philadelphia. Cissel and Melnick joined Jones Lang LaSalle in 2010, lured away from Transwestern.

Now he brings his talents to ARA Newmark, which is zeroing in on the local multifamily market. "The Washington DC metro area is poised for stable, long-term growth," White says in a prepared statement. "It leads the nation in attracting Millennials, remains one of the most educated cities in the U.S., and boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country."

"With Al's track record, expertise and deep existing relationships in the region, ARA Newmark is well-positioned to capture more of the strong investment activity as apartment fundamentals further improve," White adds.

Cissel is the latest in a series of recruitment coups by NGKF, a rapidly growing brokerage which has brought on board Delta Associates' Greg Leisch and his colleague Sandy Paul to name just two local examples. In fact, the firm has been hiring up and down the East Coast, adding staff in Miami and the Carolinas, as well as points inward, in such cities as Chicago and Phoenix.

In an interview with GlobeSt.com in March, CEO Barry Gosin said that the firm wants to expand in Maryland and target retail in particular. Indeed, the District and surrounding submarkets have been a growth target for the company, having hired 43 people in the area, 28 of which are brokers. Now it's 44, if not more, and probably counting.

Instant Insights /

Al Cissel Joins ARA Newmark

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