C&W Builds Out Capital Markets Platform

NEW YORK CITY-Three years after taking a 65% stake in Sonnenblick Goldman, Cushman & Wakefield has acquired the remaining 35% interest in its debt and equity finance subsidiary. The move announced late last week comes amid strategic hiring in C&W’s capital markets group.

Steven Kohn, president of Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman, will continue in that role while also heading up an expanded and restructured New York capital markets team. Joining the team is newly hired EVP Nathaniel Rockett, formerly of Jones Lang LaSalle, where he was a managing director and head of New York investment sales.

A 17-year veteran of New York commercial real estate, Rockett has amassed about $1.75 billion in property sales since joining JLL in 2004. Over the past 12 months, he has been involved in approximately $685 million in transactions closed or in progress, including two high-profile deals on Fifth Avenue: the $142-million sale of the Takashimaya Building at 693 Fifth to Thor Equities and the $330-million sale-leaseback of the HSBC tower at 452 Fifth.

Rockett is part of an investment sales team at C&W that also includes EVP Helen Hwang and executive director Karen Wiedenmann, who similarly have amassed an impressive list of sales to institutional and private investors. Among the deals with which Hwang and Wiedenmann have been involved are the MetLife Building at 200 Park Ave., 666 Fifth Ave., 750 Third Ave. and the adjacent 485 Lexington Ave., Park Avenue Tower and most recently 417 Fifth Ave., the latter marking Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu’s first Manhattan commercial property acquisition.

Outside of New York, C&WSG will continue to be led by regional heads, including Robert Stiles on the West Coast, Richard Swartz in New England and Douglas Hercher focusing on the Southeast, with all reporting to Kohn. Mark Gordon will continue to lead Cushman & Wakefield’s Lodging Group in the US.

In a release, Glenn Rufrano, C&W’s president and CEO, says “This is a time of significant and rapid change for the global real estate capital markets and with Steve’s direction and our existing and new talent, we’re aiming to leverage a broad service platform, deep market knowledge and a highly coordinated approach to differentiate our service offering.” The bolstering of the capital markets group fits in with an initiative Rufrano has taken to revamp the firm’s major business lines, starting with client solutions this past June. “We think it’s important to coordinate not only the geographies but also the business lines,” Rufrano told GlobeSt.com at the time.

Last week’s announcements follow major strategic initiatives within C&W’s Global Capital Markets Group, with Greg Vorwaller named global head of capital markets and John Stinson coming in as managing director and head of capital markets for the Asia Pacific region. Vorwaller, who’s joining C&W from CB Richard Ellis, will be based in Chicago. Stinson, formerly DTZ’s Asia Pacific regional director for investments and capital markets, works out of Singapore.