Billingsley Hires Top-Producing C&W Team

The new job comes with a 2,300-acre Billingsley-owned territory and the obvious opportunities to share in the wealth and challenges. "There are not many things I'd leave for, but this is one of them," Hull tells GlobeSt.com.

In addition to Hull, Billingsley got his partner: Tia DeFelice, who had been with C&W for about 3 1/2 years, most recently as an associate. DeFelice is on board as a vice president of leasing. She, Barbara Houlihan, also a VP of leasing, and Carter Crow make up the team that Hull will lead as they chart a course to boost leasing and development. The plan includes taking back outsourced leasing duties for 3.1 million sf of industrial properties in the Dallas area.

Lucy Billingsley says she and her husband, Henry, started talking to the region's top execs about a year ago. As they courted the clan, the 13-year C&W executive rose to the top of the list. "It just took us some time to get him," she confides of the lengthy pursuit leveraged by the partnership.

Hull, with 22 years in the business, was an executive director at C&W. He and DeFelice, partners for two years, were one of C&W's top-producing teams in Dallas. Telephone calls for comment about their exits were not returned by press time.

"Cushman & Wakefield has been an absolutely wonderful experience for me," Hull says. "I was not looking to leave, but the opportunity came up and I gave it a lot of thought." Going forward, the plan is "to hustle just like I did at Cushman & Wakefield," he says. But this time out, he's courting brokers and build-to-suits instead of his usual mix of tenants.

In the Dallas area alone, Hull's team has 2,300 acres, one million sf of office and 3.1 million sf of industrial product to show as they court to fill some empty spaces and win new projects. Factor in the rest of Billingsley's Texas assets and it jumps to 4,000 acres and close to six million sf of industrial space. "We have not nearly been leveraged to its potential," says Billingsley. "Now, we are postured to deliver significant product to the market.