Newmark Group Closes on RKF Retail Holdings Buy
The purchase of RKF, according to Robert K. Futterman, who will serve as chairman of Newmark RKF, Newmark’s retail leasing division, will bring Newmark Group “one step closer to creating a platform that will reshape and significantly impact the retail industry.”
NEW YORK CITY—Newmark Group Inc. has closed on its purchase of retail brokerage services firm RKF Retail Holdings, LLC and its subsidiaries.
The deal was announced in May and the company at that time stated that the transaction would close before the end of this year. There were some published reports since then that were disputed by the company that RKF was having difficulty convincing some brokers to sign on with the deal.
No financial terms of the transaction were released.
The purchase of RKF, according to Robert K. Futterman, who will serve as chairman of Newmark RKF, Newmark’s retail leasing division, will bring Newmark Group “one step closer to creating a platform that will reshape and significantly impact the retail industry.”
Futterman will be responsible for leading the growth of the company’s retail real estate business throughout North America. Alongside Futterman, among the many RKF brokers joining Newmark are: vice chairmen Karen Bellantoni, Robert Cohen, Jeremy Ezra, Barry Fishbach, Jeff Fishman and Ariel Schuster along with the firm’s management and support teams.
“The closing of the acquisition of RKF is a prominent milestone for our business in creating an industry-leading national retail services firm,” says Newmark Group CEO Barry M. Gosin. “Robert and his team bring a tremendous depth of talent and over two decades of expertise to the dynamic global retail environment. Over time, we expect our newly combined retail platform to produce strong results under Robert’s leadership.”
The acquisition of New York-based RKF augments Newmark’s own national retail business, which includes retail leasing, retail investment sales, project development retail leasing, retail occupier services and Excess Space Retail Services, a specialist in real estate disposition and lease restructuring.
“I look forward to leading the Newmark RKF team and leveraging our resources to help clients capitalize on the tremendous opportunities that exist in today’s retail real estate marketplace,” says Futterman, the former founder, chairman and CEO of RKF.
A 20-year old company, RKF operated out of offices in Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Northern New Jersey, San Francisco, Toronto and Tokyo.
Newmark Group’s existing retail business has operations in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In total, RKF will add approximately 70 brokers to Newmark Group, which expects the acquisition to be accretive to earnings per share within the first full year.