Bogle points out that a building's tenants “ultimately pay the freight for the investment that the landlord makes. Landlords buy buildings because they want to fill them with tenants who will pay rent, which will then create value for them. What we're doing is enabling tenants, in a disruptive sense, to take advantage of the additional value that they're creating in that building through their dollars, and have a portion of that value accrue to them.”

How that value accrues to the tenant varies. “It may be a check that they write with a new lease contract, it could be reduced rent for a term or it could be other concessions that are favorable to the landlord themselves,” explains Bogle.

The critical transactions team's method is “a very fact-based, data-driven process and it's independent of any one market. Our team is scattered across multiple markets on the East Coast, and we have a multi-discipline team. The result that we can deliver with that approach is typically beyond what could normally be achieved if you just looked at the lease two years out and then went out and renewed.”

He emphasizes that the new team will develop its reputation through quality of execution, rather than quantity. “A smaller tenant of 10,000 to 15,000 square feet wouldn't fit our profile in most cases, or a tenant that planned to leave that submarket at the termination of the current lease,” says Bogle. “There's certainly a lot of highly qualified brokers that could service that tenant.”

The critical transactions team combs through databases to pinpoint the most likely tenants in specific buildings, and approaching tenants “much like an investment banker would,” alerting them to opportunities even if the lease is nowhere near expiring. The idea, Bogle adds, isn't to create adversarial relationship between tenant and landlord, but rather to create a solution that works for both sides.

Although the team will increase in size over time, Bogle doesn't anticipate rapid growth. “There are so many of those deals in a year, and only so many that our team can execute,” he says. “We have more of the profile of a SEALS team or a Delta Force unit than of several battalions of the US Army.” Like an elite military unit, the team goes in, does the deal “and then we back out. We're not looking to win the portfolio of a Fortune 100 company.”

NEW YORK CITY—“A fundamental principle of our practice is to disrupt the normal market protocols and aggressively represent large users, creating for them an increased share of the value they create for building owners.” That's industry veteran Thom Bogle on the new critical transactions group he is spearheading at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank. GlobeSt.com reported exclusively on the creation of the new group, and Bogle's hiring, late last month.

In defining what the term “critical transactions” means in the context of his new role, Bogle cites the “bespoke transactions” engineered by NGKF vice chairmen Greg Katz and Tim Capps, deals which are ”very complex, and often yield unexpected results for users and even landlord investors.” He cites “the complexity of the transactions, the selective nature of the types of tenancies we are pursuing, all set within a company like Newmark—I thought it was very ingenious what they have developed.”

He offers an example of how the platform seeks to upend the standard procedure. “Generally speaking, if a tenant wants to stay in a market for the longer term, they'll wait until a year or two before the lease is up,” Bogle explains. “They'll sit down and look at the submarket and say, 'well, what did the tenant across the street pay to be in this market? We'd like to pay that or a little less, and get some refreshed signage and maybe new carpet and paint.' That's pretty much the way that most large firms renew their leases.

“We come in much earlier and disrupt, with the tenant's blessing, that market protocol,” he continues. “We ignore, for the most part, when that lease would normally expire and then we look at the building itself, the debt and equity structure on the building and what type of transaction would be favorable to that landlord possibly three, four, five, six or even more years out from the normal lease expiration. Then we try to find a sweet spot between a tenant who can strike a deal with the landlord and the landlord who's eager to strike a deal with the tenant.”

Bogle points out that a building's tenants “ultimately pay the freight for the investment that the landlord makes. Landlords buy buildings because they want to fill them with tenants who will pay rent, which will then create value for them. What we're doing is enabling tenants, in a disruptive sense, to take advantage of the additional value that they're creating in that building through their dollars, and have a portion of that value accrue to them.”

How that value accrues to the tenant varies. “It may be a check that they write with a new lease contract, it could be reduced rent for a term or it could be other concessions that are favorable to the landlord themselves,” explains Bogle.

The critical transactions team's method is “a very fact-based, data-driven process and it's independent of any one market. Our team is scattered across multiple markets on the East Coast, and we have a multi-discipline team. The result that we can deliver with that approach is typically beyond what could normally be achieved if you just looked at the lease two years out and then went out and renewed.”

He emphasizes that the new team will develop its reputation through quality of execution, rather than quantity. “A smaller tenant of 10,000 to 15,000 square feet wouldn't fit our profile in most cases, or a tenant that planned to leave that submarket at the termination of the current lease,” says Bogle. “There's certainly a lot of highly qualified brokers that could service that tenant.”

The critical transactions team combs through databases to pinpoint the most likely tenants in specific buildings, and approaching tenants “much like an investment banker would,” alerting them to opportunities even if the lease is nowhere near expiring. The idea, Bogle adds, isn't to create adversarial relationship between tenant and landlord, but rather to create a solution that works for both sides.

Although the team will increase in size over time, Bogle doesn't anticipate rapid growth. “There are so many of those deals in a year, and only so many that our team can execute,” he says. “We have more of the profile of a SEALS team or a Delta Force unit than of several battalions of the US Army.” Like an elite military unit, the team goes in, does the deal “and then we back out. We're not looking to win the portfolio of a Fortune 100 company.”