One of the top brokers on the small investment-sales team Cushman & Wakefield had before its acquisition of market-powerhouse Massey Knakal is moving on.
Nat Rockett, co-head of Cushman’s New York Investment Team, is joining Marcus & Millichap, effective Tuesday.
Rockett, who started his career at Massey Knakal, was a member of the small team doing investment sales at Cushman, which ranked 12th last year on The Real Deal’s list of top i-sales firms with $875 million in deals.
Massey Knakal, by comparison, ranked third behind Eastdil Secured and CBRE with $3.8 billion in transactions.
When Cushman, which just last week was acquired by DTZ for $2 billion, bought Massey Knakal in January it decided to implement the latter’s territory system. The move created questions about how Cushman’s brokers would be integrated into the system, and whether or not they would stick around.
Rockett said he decided to make the move to a firm where he could focus more on his investment-sales business, and acknowledged the pressure the merger with Massey Knakal was placing on Cushman’s existing brokers.
“I’m a legacy Cushman person,” he said. “The Massey Knakal system, combined with the reality at Cushman meant it was just time to move on.”
Rockett, who’s done 70 transactions in excess of $6.5 billion during his career, was awarded the Real Estate Board of New York’s Most Ingenious Sales Deal of the Year award in 2012 for his role in the sale of 88 Leonard Street on behalf of Africa Israel.
J.D. Parker, Marcus & Millichap’s district manager, said Rockett will help the firm grow its investment team, which ranked 10th last year with $1.1 billion in deals.
“As we have pushed into larger transactions in the NY region, his track record and institutional experience will allow us to better service our existing clients while allowing us to pursue new business regionally and nationally,” he said.