|
Feature Article, February 2005
Building The Team
Cushman & Wakefield has spent several years building a team to concentrate on retail real estate services. With its core team in place, the company is making a major push in retail.
Randall Shearin
 |
Located at the junction of San Francisco’s Grant Avenue and Market Street, the Millennium Partners’ Four Seasons development lies between the highly trafficked Moscone Center and Union Square and attracts both locals and tourists alike. This 600,000-square-foot complex includes 100,000 square feet of retail, 244 residential condos, the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences and the Sports Club/LA. Neighbors include Emporio Armani, Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Sony Metreon.
|
|
For a powerhouse real estate company, developing competency in a number of disciplines is the key to success to serve any client. Cushman & Wakefield — for years known as a top office and industrial player — realized that it was missing the void with retail in key markets. About 4 years ago, when Bruce Mosler stepped into a new role as president of U.S. operations, he developed a strategic plan that has culminated in the creation of Cushman & Wakefield Retail Services, which has many avenues to approach the retail business. Now Mosler is president and chief executive officer of Cushman & Wakefield, and his interest in growing the firm’s retail focus has intensified. Cushman & Wakefield Retail Services, led by James Rosenfield, has spent the last year developing a team, brand and service platform for U.S. retail leasing.
Shopping Center Business recently met with several executives from Cushman & Wakefield Retail Services during the ICSC New York Dealmaking to see how the firm is approaching the retail business. It was an interesting meeting, as SCB had met with many of the professionals at the table before — when they were with different companies. In addition to James Rosenfield, the magazine met with Gene Spiegelman, Joanne Podell, C. Bradley Mendelson, Chris Phillips, Dan Bercu, Kazuko Morgan, James Downey, Eric Le Goff, Jenna Trabulus and Tani Brown.
Widespread Coverage
 |
Cushman and Wakefield’s Eric Le Goff brokered this lease for Anne Fontaine in Chicago.
|
|
Cushman & Wakefield has historically derived the majority of its revenue from office leasing, management and building sales. So why would a company with that history make a significant investment toward developing a retail services offering?
Cushman has approached the business in the United States by building on its integrated real estate services approach in key retail markets. It has long excelled at retail investment sales and advisory services, including retail appraisal, and is now bulking up on its tenant and landlord representation services. In some markets, it has partnered with strong brokerages under licensing or networking agreements to develop coverage there.
Team To Win
 |
Located in South San Francisco, The Terraces is a lifestyle development that will include a fine arts cinema, gourmet grocer, restaurants, cafes, fitness center, spa, home furnishings, fashion and sporting goods. The shops will be easily accessible from US-l01. The Terraces will consist of 302,500 square feet of retail, a residential tower consisting of 360-plus residential units constructed over retail and 260,000 square feet of office space on 12 stories.
|
|
Cushman & Wakefield has built its retail business over the last few years by building a superior team. As Rosenfield says, top brokers don’t leave solid brokerages and incomes to take a chance that they will succeed with Cushman. All of the executives who have joined Cushman’s retail services group are seasoned, top brokers who are committed to making the company the top global retail services firm.
James Rosenfield joined the firm in 2004 to lead the charge to develop and grow Cushman & Wakefield’s retail services group nationally. Based in Los Angeles, Rosenfield is a veteran tenant representation broker and property investor. He has worked to add new brokers and affiliate companies to join Cushman and to identify brokerage houses that Cushman can acquire to expand its business.
Gene Spiegelman was one of the first retail brokers to join Cushman & Wakefield. In the 4 years since Spiegelman has joined the firm, Cushman has significantly increased its retail services revenues and personnel. In New York City, Spiegelman represents clients like Crate & Barrel and Wachovia Bank.
 |
Embarcadero Center, San Francisco.
|
|
Joanne Podell joined Cushman from Newmark New Spectrum 2 years ago. She represents tenants like The Home Depot, Ethan Allen Furniture, Ligne Roset, Ann Taylor, Nine West and Kay Jewelers.
“There is a tremendous infrastructure that this company has that we can take advantage of,” says Podell. “We put together a great strategic program of expansion for Home Depot in New York City. That capability is a direct result of the different services available at Cushman.”
C. Bradley Mendelson is the former president of Garrick-Aug Associates and was also a principal of Edward S. Gordon Co., which was later sold to Insignia and then CB Richard Ellis. He joined Cushman & Wakefield in November 2004 along with David Green, another top New York brokerage professional. As two of New York’s top retail brokers, Mendelson and Green joined Cushman because they saw the opportunity to join a prominent and growing practice.
 |
Embarcadero Center, a 4.1 million-square-foot mixed use development consisting of over 350,000 square feet of retail and encompassing 6 blocks in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district.
|
|
Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker, Cushman’s European arm, has been a major catalyst in the company’s retail focus and growth. Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker has been a retail services leader in Europe for more than 100 years. The company has 70 people specializing in retail in London alone. Cushman & Wakefield’s global retail professionals are utilizing each other’s services when their clients want to go international. The company is currently working with Whole Foods to find stores for the retailer in the United Kingdom, and Apple Computer in locating its stores. Its most recen and most successful transaction for Apple opened on London’s Regent Street in late November 2004. A few years ago, the company’s London professionals referred Swedish apparel retailer H&M to its New York team, which secured the retailer’s first American stores in New York City and garnered the coveted Real Estate Board of New York’s Deal of the Year. Camper is another retailer who has crossed the pond through the relationship.
Dan Bercu manages the Western region for Cushman & Wakefield’s retail business. Kazuko Morgan is a top brokerage professional in the San Francisco office and represents landlords like Boston Properties and Equity Office. In addition to being one of the largest office owners in the United States, Equity Office has a significant amount of high-end retail space within its office portfolio, which Cushman & Wakefield represents exclusively in the Bay Area. Morgan’s team also is responsible for leasing the retail space at Boston Properties’ Embarcadero Center, which has 350,000 square feet of retail; Crocker Galleria, which has 90,000 square feet; and JMA Ventures’ Ghirardelli Square, which has another 90,000 square feet. Those three centers are three of the largest retail projects in downtown San Francisco.
 |
Left to right: Joanne Podell, Gene Spiegelman, Jenna Trabulus.
|
|
Eric Le Goff started with Cushman & Wakefield in 1997 in the Paris office. He moved to New York in 2001 to increase the company’s marketshare with European retailers. He has specialized in the luxury retail segment, helping European retailers expand in the United States through streetfront and mall locations. Clients with whom he and his partner Jim Downey — another veteran New York retail brokerage professional — have worked include Bulgari and Hermes. Le Goff is also working with Cushman & Wakefield’s offices in Asia to help European retailers expand east as well. Downey has been with the company for 23 years, first as an attorney and now as one of its top retail experts in the Manhattan and suburban U.S. markets. If a retailer comes to the company and wants to enter the U.S. via Manhattan, then quickly expand to other markets, Downey will work with them to secure locations in major U.S. markets. He has also worked with domestic retailers like North Face, Morton’s of Chicago, Hershey’s, Molton Brown, Ann Sachs Tile & Stone, Kohler Corporation, Wachovia Bank and H&M.
 |
Chris Phillips (left) and C. Bradley Mendelson (right).
|
|
Tani Brown was with CB Richard Ellis for years managing the marketing and research group for the retail department in New York and now directs Cushman & Wakefield’s New York retail operations from its world headquarters in Manhattan. Jenna Trabulus coordinates operations and new business development nationally.
International Strategy
Rosenfield spent a lot of time in the offices of Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker to get a grasp of its operations throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker is a dominant player in many markets of European retail real estate, Cushman & Wakefield’s U.S. management has studied its operations closely to develop its platform for the U.S. market, and to ensure consistency in delivery of services worldwide. Rosenfield also has spent time building a strong bridge between Cushman’s European arm and its new retail effort in the U.S.
 |
Left to right: Tani Brown, Jim Downey, Eric Le Goff, James Rosenfield.
|
|
In the U.S., one of the efforts that Cushman & Wakefield has created is a national retail brokerage division that specializes in tenant representation and agency work in major urban markets. By representing clients like The Home Depot in New York and San Francisco, Wal-Mart in Los Angeles and Trader Joe’s in Manhattan, it is proving that it can work with the best tenants and get the deals done.
“Our tenant representation ranges from Hermes to Wal-Mart,” says Rosenfield. “What our tenants all have in common is that they are dynamic, quality merchants that offer great products.”
Another way that Cushman & Wakefield is building its team is through purchasing other companies. The firm feels that this is the best way for it to grow. Acquiring a firm with a stellar reputation and great tenant and landlord relationships will increase its market share quickly.
 |
Left to right: Eric Le Goff, James Rosenfield, Kazuko Morgan.
|
|
“We are being very selective,” says Bercu. “We are only going after the best companies and the best people in the business. We’re not looking to have hundreds of brokers in dozens of markets. We want a few high volume producers in a finite number of high-end markets.”
Brand Within A Brand
Since it has been a leader in the real estate services sector for 88 years, Cushman & Wakefield has a tremendous brand. As powerful as it is, though, it hasn’t been that well known in the retail industry. Part of the reason that the retail division has created its own brand — Cushman & Wakefield Retail Services — is to capitalize on the Cushman & Wakefield name while forging its own identity within the retail industry. And it has done quite a job in building its business over the last 3 years.
Currently, the firm has 40 retail professionals with retail capabilities from the corporate level in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Miami and Atlanta. In 2005, it will be adding Chicago, Dallas and Las Vegas, just to name a few. Another way that the company is growing is by creating alliances with other retail representation firms. Including members of the Cushman & Wakefield Alliance, the firm has about 75 retail brokers in the United States. In Europe, that number exceeds 200.
 |
Left to right: Dan Bercu, Chris Phillips, C. Bradley Mendelson.
|
|
“Our challenge was to build upon the retail platform that already existed by bringing new team members and new clients to the table,” says Rosenfield.
In the United States, Cushman & Wakefield Retail Services wants to concentrate on urban markets, while enabling itself, through acquisitions and alliances, to offer services in secondary and tertiary markets. Some of the alliances it has created include MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate in Baltimore; Thalhimer in Richmond, Virginia; Commercial Carolina in Charlotte, North Carolina; Commercial Advisors in Memphis, Tennessee; Commerce CRG in Utah; and Property Concepts Commercial in Puerto Rico. In all, there are 17 alliances around the country and growing.
“Some of these companies have very strong retail groups,” says Spiegelman. “We are going to utilize their relationships and their experience in their markets for the benefit of clients.”
 |
Left to right: Tani Brown, Jim Downey, Eric Le Goff, James Rosenfield.
|
|
One way that Cushman intends to capitalize on this is through its turnkey services for retailers. In addition to locating stores for retailers, Cushman’s industrial services group can locate distribution centers as well. The company has already linked the retail space with industrial space for retailers like Crate & Barrel, Saks Fifth Avenue, Liz Claiborne, Tommy Hilfiger and H&M.
Accountability is the key to the Cushman & Wakefield Retail Services model. Even though brokers are in many different markets, the company wants clients to deal with employees — not with another company — in that market. This way, clients can expect to receive the same service in San Francisco as they do in New York.
©2005 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.
|
