NEW YORK CITY-When reflecting on their 15 years as friends and business partners, industry veterans Howard Rosen and John Cannon always put people first. “Everybody is interested in the transaction, but ultimately, you are never going to get there without building a relationship,” Rosen tells GlobeSt.com.
Now, the tag team has decamped from Grubb & Ellis to join New York City-based brokerage firm Lee & Associates as vice chairmen, GlobeSt.com has learned exclusively. Both Rosen and Cannon will represent more than five million square feet of office space throughout Manhattan.
“We are talking about an industry that’s in a tremendous growth mode,” Rosen says, noting that the team will be eyeing many new developments on the Far West Side and Midtown South. “Many of these people do not have real estate departments. We would like to become their real estate department.”
Rosen, a 25-year veteran of Grubb, most recently worked the firm’s regional managing director in Midtown Manhattan. Cannon, who worked at G&E for 10 years, served as executive managing director. Rosen and Cannon have been partners since 1997, when they were both principals at RAK Group, LLC. Both are currently members of the Real Estate Board of New York’s plaza committee and building agents committee.
At Lee NYC, Rosen and Cannon will specialize in lease negotiations, strategic planning and deal structuring for the growing technology, media and healthcare sectors in New York, as well as financial services and government.
Their first order of business, however, will be the West Side. “The 7 line going down by the Javits Center will be a huge, huge thing, and we are already seeing it,” Rosen says, explaining that RXR’s Starrett-Lehigh Building, the Albanese Organization’s High Line project and Minksoff’s 51 Astor Pl. are helping to build momentum. “There are a lot of tenants over that will suddenly be paying Midtown rents. They are certainly on par, if not higher, than 3rd Avenue rents.”
Cannon says the team will help create unique solutions to help satisfy the tenant’s needs. “Since we are working oftentimes two years in advance of a lease expiration, you have to develop space in a lot of instances,” he says. “It’s not always readily available. You have to be creative in your approach in how you develop space.”
But with the city’s financial sector in limbo, Rosen says the team will see how the industry “shakes out.” At the same time, the team explained they are thrilled about Cornell University and Technion University’s plans for a new two-million-square-foot campus on Roosevelt Island.
“The emphasis that the city is putting on creating these technology jobs and attracting the private equity and venture capital firms that fund these people will be the new growth engine for jobs,” Rosen says.
Cannon says the deal symbolizes a greater shift in the city’s economy from financial services to technology and education. “The brain trust is here,” he says. “All the intellectual capital is here, and it flocks to New York.”
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
