GlobeSt.com EXCLUSIVE: Cushman Beats Out JLL in Downtown Push

NEW YORK CITY-Players involved in the deal say Crown Properties’ decision to remove 61 Broadway leasing agent Jones Lang LaSalle and bring in Cushman & Wakefield to market the asset marks the onset of a Downtown trend. Owners are thinking more competitively and taking a proactive stance where the leasing and management of their properties is concerned.

A number of top firms vied for the plum assignment of marketing the 33-story tower at Broadway and Exchange Place. Cushman senior director John Wheeler says C&W’s Downtown presence helped put it over the top. “What we represent is the strongest Downtown brokerage and they wanted to put that at their disposal,” he tells GlobeSt.com. Wheeler, along with C&W brokers Frank Cento, Christopher Krantz and Nathanael Pennington will spearhead the operation.

According to Wheeler, Crown Properties president and founder Davar Rad is one of many Lower Manhattan building owners who are starting to rethink their leasing and management strategies. “Owners of properties Downtown recognize that they have to outperform their competition by making changes,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “We’re responding to that. [The Downtown office market] is going to be ultra-competitive for the foreseeable future.”