JLL’s Sean Black joining Cushman & Wakefield

JLL broker Sean Black is joining Cushman & Wakefield in a move the latter brokerage hopes will boost its business with tech and creative firms in the city’s office market, Cushman announced Wednesday.

Black’s recent deals include leases with shared office providers WeWork and Cowork|rs, notably Cowork|rs’ deals in the Financial District for 30,000 square feet at 55 Broadway and 40,000 square feet at 60 Broad Street. He helped WeWork expand its early presence in Manhattan, handling the company’s lease at 175 Varick Street in 2011.

Black also represented Foursquare in a 2011 deal to set up its New York headquarters at 568 Broadway in Soho and helped Business Insider expand its 41,000-square-foot headquarters at 150 Fifth Avenue near Gramercy Park last year.

Cushman global brokerage chair Bruce Mosler told Crain’s that Black’s hiring is “reflective of the brand for the new Cushman & Wakefield,” adding that Black works “right in the sweet spot of where the leasing market has been heading and where it’s growing.”

Black started his career at Grubb & Ellis in 2000, eventually moving to Newmark Grubb Knight Frank before joining JLL in 2009. He joins Cushman in a moment of transition, with the company acquired in a $2 billion deal earlier this year by brokerage DTZ.

Black, whose father is Jamaican, is a former boxer and Olympian. He represented Jamaica in the 1996 Olympic Games, the 1999 World Championships and the 1999 Pan American Games, where he won a bronze medal in boxing. – Rey Mashayekhi