NEW YORK CITY—Hodges Ward Elliott, which recently opened its office here at 1140 Ave. of the Americas, has added two commercial real estate veterans to its New York City operations.

Mark Elliott, HWE's president and partner, says that former CBRE executive Paul Gillen and Daniel Parker, formerly of The Related Cos., have joined the firm as managing director and SVP, respectively. They will work in HWE's new NYC office, which houses the Atlanta-based firm's first practice dedicated to commercial investment sales brokerage and financing beyond the hospitality asset class, including retail, office, multifamily and land.

“We are thrilled to build our New York office—dedicated to investment sales transactions beyond our traditional hotel focus—with such seasoned, talented and proven professionals,” Elliott says. “Paul's background at CBRE and Morgan Stanley, with Daniel's experience at Related and Savills Studley, speaks to the quality of professional that want to be a part of building HWE in New York and internationally. It's extremely rare to find two experts who understand the principal side of the business from the perspective of top-tier investors and also have institutional brokerage experience.”

Gillen has worked on more than $15 billion of commercial real estate transactions. His experience includes commercial real estate, sales, financing, acquisitions, and asset management, and covers all property types and investments. He was most recently a senior vice president in the New York City investment sales group at CBRE, where he executed many high-profile asset sale and recapitalization transactions including 230 Park, One Chase Manhattan Plaza, 1370 Broadway and 511 West 25th St.

Previously, Gillen was a vice president at Morgan Stanley, where he was responsible for sourcing, underwriting, negotiating, closing and managing equity and debt investments, joint venture transactions, and development opportunities of all property types for open- and closed-end commingled investment funds, public and private pension funds, and offshore investors. Earlier in his career, he also held executive positions at UBS Global Asset Management and Transwestern Investment Services Group.

Parker was previously a VP at Related, where he led a management team overseeing a 2,700-unit multifamily portfolio in New York City. Previously, he worked in Savills Studley's capital transactions group where he closed in excess of $2.2 billion in commercial real estate transactions, including residential, office, retail and land, company officials state. Notable transactions Parker was involved in included multifamily properties at 316 Bergen, 10 E. 29th St., and 111 Kent Ave.; office properties at 100-104 Fifth Ave. and 414 W. 14th St.; retail assets at 525 Broadway, 465 Broadway and 2300 Broadway; and development sites at 616 First Ave. and 400 Park Ave. South.

“Paul and Daniel each bring a rare combination of top tier brokerage and principal experience to bear on behalf of our clients, and we welcome them to the Hodges Ward Elliott New York team,” says Will Silverman, managing director and founder of the firm's New York office. “Thanks to their commercial real estate expertise and long-standing brokerage experience, we now have a stellar foundation from which to expand our burgeoning investment sales practice.”