Former JLL sales broker moves to UGL Equis

Another broker who had been part of the capital markets group at Jones Lang LaSalle’s Manhattan office before a high-profile team from Cushman & Wakefield joined the firm earlier this year, has left for greener pastures.

Peter DeCheser, a former managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle, moved to the Manhattan office of UGL Equis, a massive global firm based in Australia, that has a small presence in New York City. He started Monday as a senior vice president, according to company officials.

UGL Equis has 24 brokers licensed by the state Department of State, while JLL has about 150, according to the state’s website.

Before joining Jones Lang in the spring of 2008, DeCheser, 49, was a senior director of sales at investment sales firm Massey Knakal Realty Services, where he worked for 11 years.

DeCheser has completed more than 200 commercial transactions, a statement from UGL Equis said.

DeCheser is leaving after the 11-person team led by brokers Scott Latham, Richard Baxter, Ron Cohen and Jon Caplan left Cushman for JLL in May.

Another broker, Nat Rockett, recently left JLL to join the small capital markets group at Cushman, working along executive vice president Helen Hwang, who had been part of the Latham, Baxter, Cohen and Caplan team.

DeCheser will lead the capital markets efforts in New York for UGL Equis, but will be able to strike deals anywhere, he said.

Acknowledging the relatively small presence of the firm in New York, he said the move “is about the size of the opportunity. The opportunity at UGL is gigantic.”

Chris Helgesen, a managing director of the New York office, said the company would look to hire another two or three capital markets brokers for the region, but was not operating under any timeline.