Cresa Partners teams with Whitman Realty

Whitman Realty Group Inc. said it entered a licensing agreement to with Cresa Partners, one of the nation’s largest tenant representation firms.

Whitman Realty, one of the largest tenant representatives on Long Island, will operate under the Cresa Partners name, under long-term licensing agreement between the two firms. Melville-based Whitman had operated a partnership for several years with Newmark & Co. Real Estate, offering a full-service brokerage to the commercial market in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

The boutique firm more recently was affiliated with the Alliance of Tenant Representatives, a Washington-based network of tenant representatives. However, the company needed more direct control, said Rich Caputi, founder and principal of Whitman Realty, which will begin operating under the Cresa Partners banner starting Jan. 8.

“I still never really had the depth of the services that I needed for my clients,” Caputi said.

Caputi said he will become managing partner or managing director of the Long Island office.

Whitman in 2007 completed several sizeable deals in Long Island, including the $14.8 million sale of a 70,000 square foot office building in Uniondale, N.Y., by Bostwick Laboratories.

Boston-based Cresa Partners said it is aiming for a presence in the nation’s 25 biggest real estate markets. Cresa Partners has a major presence in Manhattan, Westchester and southern Connecticut, but has not operated in Long Island for several years.

“We had opened discussions with a few firms, but they didn’t fit our mold,” said Bill Goade, chief executive of Cressa Partners.

Cresa Partners has more than 40 offices around the country, and just opened a new location in San Diego.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.