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.”