PHOENIX-Commercial real estate veteran Greg Coxon has joined Velocity Retail Group and affiliate company Accelerated Development Services as chief operating officer, effective today. Coxon, who has served leadership stints with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Grubb & Ellis and CBRE, is being charged with day-to-day management of operations, with specific focus on growing Velocity Retail's asset management business.
Overall, Coxon is also taking charge of boosting the companies' service platforms and business development programs, a must given the current and pending growth currently underway in the Phoenix region. "One of the things that happened during the previous cycle is that everyone had to be as efficient as possible with their staffing," says Dave Cheatham, managing principal of Velocity Retail and Accelerated Development. "As the market continues to heat up and the workload increases, we've had to grow the team to benefit from the growth."
Cheatham and Coxon have known one another since 1980s, when both were at CBRE. As such, when it came time to consider a COO, Cheatham says Coxon was the natural choice. "I heard he might be available, we got together socially and I told him there's a position on our team that could use his skill set," Cheatham tells GlobeSt.com. "We quickly realized this would be a positive situation for everyone involved."
The skills Coxon brings to Velocity Retail Group come from his jobs executive vice president and regional managing director for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and president of brokerage services for Grubb & Ellis, before it was bought out. Coxon was also senior managing director of CBRE's Phoenix office, where he was recognized as manager of the year, and founding manager for specialty practice groups including hospitality, land, economic incentives and property tax appeal.
Cheatham says the time is absolutely right to bring Coxon on board, not necessarily because the region is going through explosive growth, but because things are ramping up. "Housing prices are where they need to be and Phoenix is leading the country in employment growth," Cheatham says. "Any home-builder of any substance in America is starting to build homes on Phoenix, and net in-migration is climbing again."
Cheatham, a CRE veteran himself, says he's been through several up and down cycles, and Phoenix is definitely on the way up, which is why Coxon was hired and why Velocity Retail and Accelerated Development continue to selectively hire. "To me, it's clear that it's a good time to take advantage of solid growth in the retail market," he adds.
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