Two EVPs, One VP Exit Cencor, Weitzman

David C. Wilson, executive vice president for Cencor Real Estate Services, is wrapping up work on a half dozen shopping center projects and then moves over to the Uptown team's new office as president of Connected Development Services. Cencor's Daniel Fuller, a Cencor VP of asset management, holds the title with the Dallas shift. In San Antonio, J. Sherman Hinkebein Jr., a Weitzman EVP, is coming on board to lead the Central Texas brokerage team for Lieberman's Retail Connection, which has assembled 28 of Dallas/Fort Worth's top retail brokers from several brokerage houses in the metroplex and now is shopping San Antonio and Austin for the second wave. Next week will bring the naming of two partners for the firm and there will be news about a Houston office and an acquisitions services' ramp-up before the quarter ends, Leiberman tells GlobeSt.com.

"I hate to see them leave and I wish them the best," Herb Weitzman says, adding that Wilson's exit is the one that "we're being most thoughtful about." But, he adds, "it creates opportunity. This is something that happens in the business. There are cycles. We are a stable company. We are an established company...and it's going to be a great opportunity for some people." Not only will it be a good opportunity for those in the ranks and those who might be hired, but he says it is "an exciting opportunity for us to keep the company energized and rejuvenate it."

Lieberman, Weitzman's former president, stresses he's not been recruiting or raiding the ranks of a firm where he started as an intern and spent 14 years as a partner. Those who have left the Weitzman-Cencor retail powerhouse have done so because they want to continue on the same team, according to Lieberman. "Our team has been in this business together a long time. We know each other and we work extremely well with each other and have shared many great successes," he explains. "What you're seeing is a desire for the team to continue working together."

As for the other brokerage houses, Lieberman says the top men in town just want to be part of the excitement in building a new retail kingmaker, which is rising with a commission-only structuring for brokers and salary plus ownership percentage on the development side. "We're not measuring our company by head count," he emphasizes. "We're measuring it by the impact in the market." The Retail Connection's hiring rally also snared eight employees from competitors' support camps.

Landing Hinkebein, as with Wilson, was a coup for the Retail Connection. Last year, Hinkebein was Weitzman's top producer statewide and has been a consistent leader in annual transactions volume since joining the firm in 1993.

Wilson, a 26-year professional, tells GlobeSt.com that he will retain ownership in the Cencor centers that he's developing or has developed. But, the decision to head up a new development firm presented a challenge with "promise" and a ground-floor entry that he simply couldn't pass up. He broke the news last week to Herb Weitzman and Cencor's president Marshall Mills, working out a plan to stay until the half dozen projects were "out of harm's way." Wilson says the transition will take a couple months during which time he will also be starting to ply projects for Lieberman's team.

Lieberman says Connected Development Services, deviating from the norm, will be driven purely by the retail clients saying what and where they want to build. The Retail Connection hit the streets with a fury that not only assembled the top players in town, but amassed a three million sf property listing and nearly 70 retail and restaurant clients in a five-month period. "Everyone is excited by it and wants to be a part," says the CEO who partnered with Alan P. Shor, the Retail Connection's president, along with a "significant" financial backer for the breakaway play.

The Retail Connection is in the process of moving into 20,000 sf at 2525 McKinnon St. in Dallas' Uptown, where it's subleased about half the space to HSMK, a national retail advisory affiliate, and a law firm. Lieberman says he took the space now for the inevitable growth down the road for the operation. Hinkebein's team will office at 8000 IH 10 West in San Antonio.