Newmark Grubb Knight Frank announced that Bill Rolander and Jon Cordell have joined the firm’s Chicago office as executive managing director and senior managing director.
The pair joins the firm from The John Buck Company, specializing in high-profile office leasing assignments within Chicago’s central business district. With more than 30 years of combined agency leasing, the duo will continue to focus on select assets while leveraging the strength of the NGKF agency practice and full-service global platform.
Prior to joining NGKF, Rolander and Cordell served as principal and senior vice president at JBC. They have operated as a team for several years, leasing a portfolio of Chicago trophy and iconic assets including: 155 N. Wacker, 161 N. Clark, 209 S. LaSalle (The Rookery), 33 N. LaSalle and 142 E. Ontario. More recently, the team has been entrusted to pursue anchor tenants to launch several new trophy office tower developments at 151 N. Franklin and 333 S. Wabash, which total over 1.8 million square feet. The duo has already signed two lead occupants for 151 N. Franklin, which will be anchored by CNA Insurance and Hinshaw & Culbertson.
Rolander joined JBC in 1995 as vice president and had been principal of the firm and managing director of leasing since 2004. He worked on virtually all of JBC’s office developments and office acquisitions including leasing responsibilities for numerous third party accounts and a project in Berlin, Germany.
Cordell began his career in commercial real estate more than 12 years ago, and served most recently as a senior vice president for JBC. He has completed 275 transactions valued at $1.3 billion throughout his career in Chicago’s office sector.
