“We expanded our reach,” says Simson, “and we added some top players.”

Furthermore, the company upped its loan sales activity, sharpened its focus on “Tiffany” office brokerage and moved its central New Jersey operations into a landmark building in East Brunswick, the Tower Center I (PNC Bank has headquarters offices in Tower II, in a deal brokered by Newmark Knight Frank in 2011.)

Newmark Knight Frank's parent company BGC Partners acquired Grubb & Ellis in March of last year. The merger that created NGKF was completed a month later.

Simson notes that the office market has been bearish since then, and that the trend is to corporations taking drastically less space even if they are doing well: “Eighty percent of companies relocating to new space are taking 25-30% less space than they had before.” NGKF represented Realogy, for example, in its move to new digs in Madison this year. The new offices comprise 270,000 square feet, about 100,000 square feet less than Realogy occupied in Parsippany.

However, Schultz adds that “capital is still chasing deals.” He pointed to a notable uptick in opportunistic office and retail deals that are coming together right now.

“We are looking to close on $300 million worth of product this year,” Schultz said of NGKF's New Jersey operation.

While existing office product continues to sell “really cheap,” he acknowledges, “there is still a lot of opportunity in value-add deals where a building is, say, 70% occupied and needs some improvements. There is some risk, maybe, but the building is stabilized. There is a lot of activity in this right now,” says the investment sales specialist.

In the retail sector, triple-net leased buildings are very attractive to investors, both Simson and Schultz said. “We expect quite a bit more retail sales activity in the fourth quarter, says Schultz.

Other deals on the horizon, says Schultz are “special-purpose,” such as a college campus that is for sale in New York.