JLL’s big Manhattan surge

JLL won significantly more new Manhattan office-leasing assignments than any of its rivals over the past year.

The commercial firm snagged more than three times as much office space as its closest competitor over the past 12 months, according to a review by The Real Deal of data from CoStar Group.

Historically, the top four firms representing office landlords in the city — CBRE, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Cushman & Wakefield and JLL — all win between 3 million and 6 million square feet of new business every year.

But over the past year, JLL landed more than 17 million square feet in new office-leasing gigs, TRD’s analysis found.

In part, it trumped its rivals by winning multi-building portfolios, such as one owned by Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty and several of Brookfield Properties’ assets.

Those accounted for at least 10 million square feet, or 59 percent of the total in new wins, TRD found.

JLL also won other large, single-building leasing assignments like Fosun International’s 2.2-million-square-foot 28 Liberty Street (the former Chase Manhattan Plaza); Paramount Group’s 1.7-million-square-foot 1301 Sixth Avenue; and Edward J. Minskoff’s 1.5-million-square-foot 1166 Sixth Avenue.

Cushman, a distant second on the securing new business front, won about 5 million square feet in new landlord “agencies,” including the 1-million-square-foot 14 Wall Street.

Newmark ranked third with 4.4 million square feet. And CBRE trailed the top of the pack, with just over 2 million square feet, including Westbrook Partners 513,000-square-foot 1375 Broadway. (It should be noted, however, that CBRE still represents far more office space overall than any of its rivals.)

TRD analyzed CoStar data spanning the last year for Midtown, Midtown South and Downtown areas for the four firms to see which leasing assignments changed hands. The database has the most comprehensive list TRD could obtain that identified firms hired by Manhattan office landlords.

The results were shared with each firm for comment, but only Cushman confirmed its figure.

Top of the food chain

Despite JLL’s huge growth spurt, it still doesn’t come close to rivaling CBRE as the top landlord-leasing firm in Manhattan.

CBRE has about 68 million square feet overall, CoStar figures show. Newmark follows, with about 60 million square feet, and JLL and Cushman have about 50 million each. A spokesman for JLL told TRD the firm had 53.4 million square feet in office leasing assignments, but would not disclose the additional buildings. Cushman is almost certain to rise in the ranks over the next year, after it closes on its $2 billion deal to buy DTZ.

Not only did JLL win a significant amount of new business, but CoStar data also indicate that with an average of about 725,000 square feet, its properties are larger than the new buildings other firms won.

In addition, the 24 buildings JLL won this year have large availabilities, which gives JLL the opportunity to lease up big chunks of space and pocket more leasing commissions.

CBRE’s new leasing assignments are generally smaller buildings, averaging just under 250,000 square feet each. Yet on the plus-side for the firm, CoStar is showing more than 1 million square feet of available space in the 2.2 million feet total CBRE has won over the past 12 months, making it a potentially lucrative portfolio.

Poaching pays off

JLL has traditionally been the smallest of the four Manhattan firms. It began to ramp up its business a few years ago, with a series of hires that included Scott Panzer and his team from Newmark in 2009. In 2011, it added a large group of brokers from Cushman, including Mitch Konsker and Paul Glickman.

Gregg Popkin, RFR COO, said he and Rosen chose JLL. “The reality is there is a fine line differentiating the firms,” he said. 

They chose JLL because of relationships and the personalities of key principals, which he said provided the confidence RFR needed to “get [us] over the hump.” TRD