CHICAGO-Kenneth Szady, who has led capital markets groups at Trammell Crow and most recently Cushman & Wakefield, is moving against the mass of recent Grubb departures and has joined the Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Capital Group here as executive managing director. The reasons were the opportunity to access more deal options, and the leadership by parent company BGC Partners Inc.’s CEO Howard Lutnick, he tells GlobeSt.com.

Szady was most recently an executive director and head of capital markets for Cushman & Wakefield here. In March, he closed one of the largest US industrial transactions this year, a 1.3-million-square-foot build-to-suit facility for the Clorox Co. in University Park, IL, sold by USAA Real Estate Co. to CBRE Investors.

He tells GlobeSt.com that he saw the move as a chance to gain more options for new business. The Newmark Grubb firm will have about 30 industrial brokers in the Chicago area, compared to only five at Cushman, he says. “Also, there’s the national piece, where I now have added capability to offer on-balance sheet through Lutnick’s firm Cantor,” Szady says. “If a company wants to do something with a $100 million property, they can sell or I can suggest a refinance, I can walk into an associate’s office and come out with a $70 million CMBS loan, for example. I don’t have to run down the street, or go to a finance firm of a competitor.”