NEW YORK CITY-David Arena, who has led the New York region at Grubb & Ellis since 2006, has moved over to JPMorgan Chase. Arena will become co-head of JPMorgan’s corporate real estate team along with Kim Bertin.
A spokeswoman for Grubb & Ellis confirms JPMorgan’s Monday afternoon announcement. She tells GlobeSt.com that Arena's last day with Grubb has not been set. Joseph Swingle, who succeeded Arena as executive managing director of the New York office, says in a statement, "We’re grateful for David’s years of service with us and wish him the best – he’s going from one great company to another.”
This past January, Arena was promoted to chairman, with Swingle taking over his duties. In his capacity as chairman, Arena has focused exclusively on expanding Grubb’s client roster through leveraging the resources of the company’s platform. For his part, Swingle assumed Arena’s duties in managing and growing the company’s tristate presence. He’s been with the company since 1988.
Arena joined Grubb as president of the New York region in 2006 from Jones Lang LaSalle. His client roster at JLL included MetLife, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Hines, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Previously he spent nine years as Morgan Stanley as the head of global corporate real estate. He began his real estate career at Tishman Speyer Properties in 1986.
“In the nearly four years David has been with Grubb & Ellis, he has raised the company’s profile considerably and more than tripled the company’s property assets under management in New York,” Jack Van Berkel, COO and president of real estate services, said in a statement when Arena was promoted to chairman.
JPMorgan says Bertin will be responsible for the company’s real estate portfolio for the Americas, while Arena’s focus will be on international and retail financial services. Each will be responsible for all design and construction, facilities, asset management and transactions in their respective footprints and jointly responsible for strategy and real estate policy across the company, according to JPMorgan. A 24-year veteran of JPMorgan, Bertin has also served as a senior director at CB Richard Ellis and head of real estate at Bertlesmann/Random House.
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Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
