The team's overall goal is to help formulate an integrated investment sales and real estate investment banking business in the Americas. Such a business would offer debt and equity origination and placement, equity fund raising, resolution strategies, loan and note sales and investment advisory services.
Thomas Melody tells GlobeSt.com the move from CBRE had more to do with the opportunity to grow something at Jones Lang LaSalle. The relationship with CBRE was very good, and there were no issues with the team's departure, Melody adds.
"We wanted to be someplace where we could be a large part of a growing capital markets platform as opposed to someplace with a stable capital markets platform that we continue to work with, but are not involved in the growth of," Melody comments. "This is more of a challenge, but it's exciting for us." A spokesman with CB Richard Ellis issued the statement that the Melodys and Fish were fine producers and "we wish them the best."
Jay Koster, JLL's Americas Capital Markets president, explains that the company's mandate since last October has been to aggressively expand capital markets involvement in the United States. He tells Globest.com that the Melody-Fish-Melody team is the fourth to be hired since the beginning of the year to support that mandate, with more hires forthcoming.
"A critical part involved their deep history at their former firm of working alongside the investment sales business and capital markets business, and helping to drive the growth of those to an extremely credible debt platform," Koster adds. "We want to have them capitalize on that for us."
Though geographical considerations weren't an overriding factor in the team's hire, "it helps in that e don't otherwise have a deep capital markets presence in Houston and don't have any real estate investment banking presence in Texas at this point," Koster notes. "With these hires, we gain national leaders, and check a critical box off in our overall platform development."
The Melodys were with L.J. Melody & Co., a local mortgage company launched by their father in the late 1970s. CBRE acquired the company in 1996 and Fish joined the Melody team at that time. In 2005, L.J. Melody officially became CBRE/Melody and at some point in the ensuing years, Thomas Melody remarks, the "Melody" name was dropped as the Melodys and Fish became part of CBRE Capital Markets.
Looking forward, Melody says it's his hope that the team can work with JLL to restructure a resolutions strategy business. Other potential plans include involvement with equity fundraising, and sale and acquisition of notes.
"The way we're looking at this is that Jones Lang LaSalle is similar to when CB bought us 14 years ago," Melody explains. "They have the dominant real estate platform, they have the existing real estate banking and capital markets platform, now they want the leadership to help that build and grow. We've done it before, now the objective is to do it again."
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