Jones Lang LaSalle recently hired Longmore, Sig Arnesen and Chris Rehmet. The three will all be senior vice presidents and all come from Inland Real Estate. Arnesen will focus on property and asset management and Rehmet will focus on leasing.

Maloney says open-air centers are one of the fastest growing categories for shopping centers. "Regional malls are really not being built anymore. Most of the growth is coming in the mixed use and open-air types of new construction and new offerings," Maloney tells GlobeSt.com. "For example, in 2006, I think of the 10 larger format centers that opened, nine of them did not have roofs on them."

Whereas a regional shopping center will probably have staff at the property, an open air center may not have a full-time staff managing the property onsite. With the new division, a company or entity that owns several centers throughout the country can hire Jones Lang LaSalle to manage all of them. "In the past, they would have had to hire people with local markets from different companies because there was not a national player," Maloney says.