Ex-Cushman brokers win three Midtown buildings for JLL


Top row, from left: Mitchell Konsker, Paul Glickman, Mitti Liebersohn and Alex Chudnoff. Bottom row, from left: 99 Park Avenue, 1290 Sixth Avenue, 681 Fifth Avenue and 1411 Broadway

Following the exit by five major leasing brokers from Cushman & Wakefield to Jones Lang LaSalle last month, there has been a behind-the-scenes battle over who is the landlord leasing representative for millions of square feet of Manhattan office space that had been handled by Cushman.

In that contest, JLL has picked up at least three buildings owned by Midtown-based Eastgate Realty with more than 1.7 million square feet.

The buildings are the 550,000-square-foot 99 Park Avenue, the 530,000-square-foot 120 Park Avenue and 665,000-square-foot 875 Third Avenue, data from CoStar Group shows. All are now represented by Paul Glickman, a vice chairman, and Diane Biasotti, a senior vice president, of JLL.

But Cushman has retained several buildings as well, including 1290 Sixth Avenue and 681 Fifth Avenue, totaling more than 2 million square feet.

The two firms have been courting landlords to be the leasing agents, sources said, at some of the approximately 20 buildings with more than 9 million square feet of space for which at least one of the five former brokers was a leasing agent. The particular buildings and amounts of space represented are based on an analysis of CoStar Group data by The Real Deal, and were not confirmed by either company.

Neither firm would comment on these five addresses where the agency has been confirmed nor on the other buildings where the five brokers had agencies, including, for example, the 613,000-square foot 850 Third Avenue.

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Insiders said this type of wooing is typical when a broker leaves, because of the relationship-based nature of real estate. But there is no guarantee the broker who leaves will be able to take the account.

The brokers — Mitchell Konsker, Matthew Astrachan, Paul Glickman and Mitti Liebersohn, who are now vice chairmen, and Alex Chudnoff, now a managing director — left Cushman in early January for JLL, in one of the most high-profile departures in nearly a decade.

The scorecard of who will represent which buildings remains mostly private and for some buildings unresolved, insiders said.

Cushman declined to comment beyond saying that negotiations were ongoing at more than a half-dozen buildings.

“For now, we prefer to keep the discussions private between Cushman & Wakefield and its clients,” a company spokesperson said.

JLL did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Eastgate Realty, the owner of the three buildings that went to JLL.