The team of Bill Rolander, Jon Cordell, Jason Houze and Jessica O’Hara of Newmark Knight Frank’s (NKF) Chicago office were awarded the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s (GCFD) 2018 Office Property Representative of the Year award. The prestigious award was announced during GCFD’s 31st annual Chicago Commercial Real Estate Awards dinner, which was held on March 14th at the Hilton Chicago.
GCFD’s award for Office Property Representative of the Year recognizes the outstanding achievements of an individual, or an established team of office leasing agent(s) who negotiate office lease transactions specifically on behalf of owners/landlords of office buildings. In 2018, the Rolander/Cordell/Houze/O’Hara team completed 36 transactions totaling 875,000 square feet and representing $245 million in total value.
Notably, 630,000 square feet of the transactions were new deals, resulting in positive absorption to the team’s portfolio. The team’s 2018 highlights include leasing 151 N. Franklin Street (which was awarded GCFD’s 2018 Development of the Year award) to over 92 percent and finalizing a transaction with CDW to anchor the new development at 625 W. Adams.
“We are extremely honored to receive this award,” said Rolander. “Our team would like to thank the Greater Chicago Food Depository and our industry colleagues for this honor as well as congratulate all of the 2018 finalists and winners.”
Rolander, Cordell and Houze each joined NKF in September 2016, bringing over 30 years of robust agency leasing experience and a portfolio of landmark assets with them to NKF. Rolander and Cordell joined the firm from The John Buck Company, where they served as a principal and managing director and senior vice president, respectively. Houze joined the team shortly thereafter, coming from JLL and O’Hara came aboard early last year from CBRE.
This team became NKF Chicago’s #1 and #2 producers of 2017, #2 and #4 producers of 2018 and top 100 nationally for both 2017 and 2018. They have represented Chicago landlords such as Morgan Stanley, CBRE Global, The John Buck Company, White Oak/Vanderbilt Office/USAA and LAMB/IBT. Over the last three years, the team has leased over 3.2 million square feet valued at over $1.3 billion, and almost two million square feet of new lease transactions. The team’s portfolio currently boasts an average occupancy of over 92 percent.
