C&W Launches Seattle Investment Sales Division

SEATTLE, WA-Cushman & Wakefield of Washington Inc. is launching a new investment sales division with the help of Scott Eshelman. Most recently director of real estate marketing and leasing for billionaire Paul Allen’s firm Vulcan Inc., Eshelman is now C&W’s senior director of capital markets investment sales.The local C&W office, which at one time had 10 investment sales brokers, has been operating without any since the beginning of 2004. That’s when Reynolds Haas, a specialist in the sale of institutional real estate and a rainmaker for the firm for 11 years, left his post as senior director of the local financial services group to be the senior vice president in charge of office, industrial and retail investment sales for the local office of Colliers International.Eshelman brings to C&W 24 years of experience in the investment and marketing of properties, some of that with C&W. Immediately prior to joining C&W, Eshelman was in charge of marketing and leasing for Vulcan’s 60 acres of property in Seattle’s South lake Union area, and was integral to several high-profile projects in the area, including. Some of those projects include 2200 Westlake, a 456,000-sf development that features a Whole Foods Market, Pan Pacific Hotel and 261 condominiums; Alley24, a mixed-use project just west of REI’s flagship retail store consisting of two low-rise building containing 172 residential units, 165,000 sf of office space anchored by NBBJ and Skanska USA Building Inc., and 28,000 sf of street-level retail; and Alcyone, a nearby 162-unit, eight-story apartment building located next to Cascade Park.Prior to Vulcan, Eshelman was president of Lariat Software, Inc. in Seattle where he directed the company’s growth in sales, marketing and funding. Several years prior to that, Eshelman was a senior sales and leasing associate in Cushman & Wakefield’s Seattle office.When asked why he decided to leave Vulcan, Eshelman tells GlobeSt.com he wanted something that required fewer nights and weekends away from home. “I was looking for more flexibility and less demand on my family life,” he says. When asked why he chose C&W, Eshelman says he wants to help rebuild the firm’s investment sales business.For the past year, C&W’s investment sales assignments in Washington has been handled out of San Francisco by a team of brokers led by George Eckard, senior director of C&W’s financial services group. “Although George has been able to do a lot from there, having people dedicated to the Northwest will make it much more successful,” says Eshelman. Eshelmen says he plans to complement himself by building up a team of “three or four” brokers who will be able to tap the existing resources of the local office, which include financing, analysis, appraisal, and evaluation services in addition to its stable of leasing brokers. “Ultimately, it does not have to be a big team,” says Eshelman, “just a high quality team.”