SAN DIEGO—GlobeSt.com has learned that eight professionals comprising Newmark Grubb Knight Frank's retail brokerage team have join the company's capital-markets bench in San Diego and Newport Beach, led by Pete Bethea here as executive managing director. The team most recently served at Cushman & Wakefield.

Specializing in the sale and leasing of suburban retail product in Southern California and the western region, these professionals have completed transactions in excess of $2 billion over the past three years. Joining Bethea are senior managing director Rob Ippolito and managing director Glenn Rudy, who will continue their capital-markets focus on selling shopping centers for institutional clients and public and private investment companies in key western markets. Senior managing directors John Jennings and Chris Walton will lead the leasing effort from their seats in San Diego and Newport Beach, respectively. The balance of the leasing platform includes managing director Aaron Hill and associate Justin Wessel out of NGKF's San Diego office and associate Kevin Hansen, who joins Walton in the firm's Newport Beach office.

Bethea tells GlobeSt.com exclusively, "NGKF is a unique model in the industry today. It's exciting to be a part of growth that offers our current and future clients a viable alternative to larger-format shops." 

The combined leasing portfolio of the team consists of more than 9.3 million square feet throughout Southern California including San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. Partners for more than 20 years, Bethea, Jennings and Ippolito have built a strong reputation in the retail industry for delivering a client-centric model to the shopping center business. "Keeping an eye on our clients' needs is our core focus," said Jennings. "Our long-term relationships have been the lifeline of our business." 

According to Jimmy Kuhn, president of NGKF, "Retail investors are much more selective about the quality and capability of brokerage professionals whom they hire, and appreciate the ability to develop and unlock value beginning to end. This roster of brokers has been very successful because of their collaborative methodology to incorporate leasing and investment strategy universally side by side."

Greg May, EVP and regional managing director for NGKF, adds, that the firm is "looking forward to bolstering NGKF's retail presence in Southern California as well as the western states."

Members of the team of Bethea, Rudy and Ippolito have facilitated several sizable assignments and transactions during their tenure at C&W, including marketing to investors Sunmark Plaza, a 232,072 square foot best-in-class power center in upscale Henderson, NV; representing the buyer and procuring the seller for Hawthorne Crossings, a 141,288-square-foot grocery anchored community shopping center here for $41.5 million or $297.72 per square foot; and representing the seller in the sale of Encinitas Village, a 183,675-square-foot neighborhood retail center in Encinitas, CA, for a price GlobeSt.com learned from an unidentified source was just north of $78.6 million.