PHOENIX-A growing interest among investors in the southwest multifamily market has prompted Jones Lang LaSalle’s Phoenix office to form its own sector division. To that end, industry veteran John Cunningham has been hired as executive vice president to establish and expand the company’s multifamily investment sales practice throughout Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

Cunningham, who came on board Nov. 10, tells GlobeSt.com that multifamily has become one of the most desired product types for investors. As such, he was glad to join JLL to give that company a regional foothold and to work with investors in acquiring and disposing of assets. In his role, Cunningham will report to JLL managing director David Young, who heads the company’s West Coast multifamily investment sales practice.

“I’m working on building a team to provide our clients with multifamily investment sales experience and research in the southwest region,” he comments. He’s on the lookout for personnel, he adds, but there is no specific deadline to hire. “We’re looking for individuals with experience, as well as knowledge of the fundamentals in the multifamily marketplace,” he says.

Cunningham himself has a good handle on experience and knowledge. During his 25 years in the industry, he’s gathered experience through leadership positions at companies such as Alliance Residential, Camden Property Trust and United Dominion Realty Trust, and has been responsible for the acquisition and sale of more than 10,000 multifamily housing units totaling more than $2 billion.

These days, he points out, the class A multifamily market has done a good job of stabilizing during the past 24 months. By the same token, class B and repositioning opportunities are becoming more plentiful. As a result, there are investors out there who are welcoming the value-add opportunities inherent in a repositioning.

As such, “our goal here is to build our platform on all these product types within the southwest region,” Cunningham remarks.