CRE Musical Chairs brings March Madness

ATLANTA—It was truly March Madness last month as the commercial real estate musical chairs continued across the Southeast. CBRE made several hires, as did Franklin Street and other players.

CBRE hired Hans Kaunath as vice president in the Tampa market. Kaunath will serve as an office agency professional focusing on office product in Pinellas County.

Patricia Nooney, senior managing director of Investors Services for CBRE in Florida, is bullish on the new hire. She says, “With his expansive experience leasing and marketing numerous office portfolios, along with his deep understanding of the North and Central Florida markets, we look forward to increasing our market share in our office agency business throughout the greater Tampa Bay area.”

Kaunathhas worked in commercial real estate for more than 16 years. He previously served as director of leasing for Ciminelli Real Estate Services of Florida and leasing manager at CRT Properties. His began his career with Koger Equity as a financial analyst.

CBRE hired Rick Wilson as a project manager for its Florida operations. He is charged with advancing the company's portfolio of projects focusing on institutional services, occupier services and third-party owners represented related assignments. He joins CBRE with more than 15 years of business growth and development experience in both the field and office. He previously owned his own firm.

CBRE also hired Shay Pope as senior vice president and Ryan Nunes as associate in the Office Occupier Services Group. Both will provide strategic planning and transaction advisory services for corporate and professional service tenants located throughout South Florida.

Pope has been involved in lease transactions in excess of 2 million square feet.
Nunes recently relocated from the Washington, D.C. area where he formerly worked at Studley for five years providing financial cost benefit analyses for many of the region's leading institutions.

Franklin Street added Stuart Shapiro as a senior director of its Real Estate Services' division in the firm's Atlanta office. Shapiro will focus on third-party leasing, retail asset disposition, land transactions, and the business development of properties throughout the Southeast.

“Stuart has vast amount of retail leasing experience,” says Danny York, COO of Franklin Street. “His relationships with national and local tenants, as well as, brokers, municipalities, and vendors will be a tremendous asset to all of our clients. His level of knowledge and expertise will propel our already stellar leasing platform to a new level.”

Shapiro brings more than 10 years of real estate experience to Franklin Street. He previously served as a top-producing leasing associate and was responsible for the leasing of shopping centers throughout Georgia including power centers, grocery-anchored centers, and strip centers.

Front Street Commercial Real Estate Group hired Caleb McDow as an associate director. McDow's is charged with helping grow the firm's commercial brokerage presence within Gainesville and other North Central Florida markets. Meanwhile, Jonathan Porter was named vice president of Capital Markets for Ram. Porter will have leadership responsibility for the company's debt capital market relationships and will actively manage a variety of Ram borrowings. Porter previously served in a similar capacity on behalf of a regionally focused real estate private equity fund.

Juan Vega, has joined Colliers International Tampa Bay, Central & Southwest Florida as managing director of Office and Medical Services. Vega is an expert in office and medical tenant representation, with a focus on working with medical companies' real estate needs. He has handled leasing of over 750,000 square feet for healthcare companies in the past three years, while brokering over $20 million in sales over the past year.

Vega was previously with Cassidy Turley, where he served as a senior vice president and was the top producing broker in the west-central Florida region in recent years. He has more than 14 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry.