JLL to market RFR’s entire NYC office portfolio

Looking to boost its office leasing, Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty replaced a mainly in-house team of agents with a JLL team, which will now be responsible for its entire 14-building New York City portfolio.

RFR’s in-house leasing department will be reduced from nine to four agents, some of whom are leaving for JLL. The JLL ream representing RFR will be comprised of 14 agents, led by Mitch Konsker and Alexander Chudnoff.

RFR president Greg Popkin told the Wall Street Journal that switching to an outside team means “giving up a substantial amount of commission income.” The upside he predicts: “If we’re as successful as we hope we’ll be, the volume of deals will far outweigh the loss in commissions.”

RFR’s portfolio has grown substantially, with five major Manhattan acquisitions in the last two years — 350 Madison Avenue, 285 Madison Avenue, 281 Park Avenue South, 190 Bowery And 11 Bond Street.

JLL’s growth has also been impressive. According to Konsker, its leasing assignments are up to 53 million square feet in New York, up from 40 million just one year ago. He said the key to its success often involves stealing the deal — swooping in at the last moment to court a tenant that is about to sign somewhere else.

CBRE will lose its assignments on 350 Madison AvenueAnd 285 Madison Avenue, which it used to handle for RFR on a one-off basis.

“We unfortunately were not having the kind of traction we were looking for on those two and decided to make a change,” Popkin told the Journal, adding that he was not criticizing CBRE’s efforts. [WSJ] — Tess Hofmann