Eight highly-touted veteran real estate brokers from Hart Corp. who specialize in industrial property transactions in secondary and tertiary U.S. markets have joined leading commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF). These seasoned professionals bring over 185 years of aggregate transaction experience in leasing, acquisitions, dispositions, build-to-suit and development projects, and nearly $500 million in aggregate deal volume since 2010. With the new hires, NGKF expands its presence in the Northeast, Southern, Midwest and Central U.S. regions, while strengthening its capability on behalf of multi-market corporate services clients in virtually any location.
“For over 50 years, Hart Corp. has been widely recognized as a pioneer within the industrial real estate community, having built a unique niche focusing on transactions in non-metropolitan areas in the U.S. and compiling a complementary and extensive database that we recognize as unparalleled among third-party firms that track results,” said NGKF CEO Barry Gosin. “Having the Hart specialists exclusively part of the NGKF organization allows us to leverage their established corporate relationships and provide our clients with even more extensive national coverage.”
The Hart brokers, which collectively hold real estate licenses in 24 different states and have a per-broker average tenure of over 23 years, are representing a diverse mix of corporations, small- and mid-sized companies, as well as various economic development agencies. Their cumulative market knowledge and proprietary database of available, sold and leased industrial properties in outlying U.S. markets enhance NGKF’s comprehensive resources.
“These are institutional-minded brokers with amazing relationships that couldn’t benefit comprehensively without a platform. They will now! And this will occur because their clients more often recognize their efforts for having solved near-impossible transactions in out-of-the way rural places, when nobody else could,” said Mr. Gosin. “They can now service these relationships at an even greater level via NGKF’s global platform and through the BGC Partners family of companies. In turn, NGKF clients will have access to strategic data, and local resources to execute on multi-market, multi-asset class real estate strategies.”
Executive Managing Directors Robert Blackman and James Belcher, Associate Director Joseph Boerner and Director Howard Fertman will join NGKF’s Wayne, Penn., office and work on national accounts. Senior Managing Director Thomas Turner will cover the Carolinas/Virginia region from the Charlotte, N.C., office, while Director Bartell Hardison will work the Southeast region from the Atlanta office. Senior Managing Director Arthur Ross is heading up a newly opened office in Hartford, Conn. Managing Director Craig Nielson will cover the Midwest region from one of NGK’s Midwest offices.
“Our brokers have consistently been leaders in places that have been underserved by larger firms. In addition to assisting clients in the site selection process, we have consistently sold or leased more than 90 percent of the exclusive agencies we have handled, which is markedly higher than the industry average in these areas,” said Mr. Blackman. “NGKF, which shares a similar client-focused philosophy, now gives us the capability to offer a full suite of corporate services for our long-standing corporate clients and to service both their small-market and major-market needs domestically and internationally.”
“The team includes some of the most accomplished, creative and credentialed brokers in the sector with transaction experience in 47 states,” added Geoffrey Kasselman, SIOR, executive managing director of NGKF’s national industrial practice. “With their deep, long-standing relationships with nearly all of corporate America, and the power of the NGKF/BGC platform, the synergy is so considerable that everyone wins by virtue of this announcement. And at the same time, it is a stepping stone to the on-boarding of additional industrial brokers in several locations.”
Five of the eight brokers joining the team—Mr. Belcher, Mr. Turner, Mr. Hardison, Mr. Ross and Mr. Nielson—have earned the prestigious Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) designation. Mr. Kasselman, who was hired last year to lead NGKF’s industrial practice, is currently vice president of the national real estate organization and will become the organization’s global president in the fall of 2016.
