NGKF poaching spree: two brokers from Madison Partners, two from CushWake

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is continuing the poaching spree that began with its nabbing of capital markets bigwig Kevin Shannon from CBRE earlier this year. NGKF hired four new brokers on the leasing side this month, two from local brokerage Madison Partners and two from Cushman & Wakefield, The Real Deal has learned.

Brad Feld, a partner at Madison Partners, will join NGKF as a vice chairman. In his six years at Madison, he specialized in tenant and landlord representation in leases for the likes of Disney, Nickelodeon and Viacom. He worked alongside the firm’s president, Bob Safai, who declined to comment. Before Madison, he had a 20-year run at Cushman & Wakefield. 

Feld, who will be based out of NGKF’s Downtown Los Angeles office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Commercial leasing broker Steven Salas, who specializes in medical and entertainment industry transactions, is joining NGKF’s West L.A. office as an executive managing director. He has been an executive vice president at Madison Partners since 2005, before which he spent 20 years at CBRE. His list of clients has included the David Geffen company, CIM and the LeFrak organization. 

“I wasn’t expecting to make any changes but a great opportunity presented itself,” he told The Real Deal. “It was the opportunity to go back to a multinational firm with resources and support, to focus on new landlord business which Newmark needs, and to better serve my global clients.”

In this new role, Salas will lead NGKF in establishing a landlord agency team on the Westside and throughout the L.A. area while maintaining his focus on medical, entertainment and corporate services leases. 

Cushman & Wakefield’s John McMillan is joining NGKF as executive managing director, along with Jeff Sanita, who will be a senior managing director. McMillan and Sanita will be based out of NGKF’s El Segundo office.

At Cushman, McMillan was an executive vice president dealing with industrial leasing and Sanita was a senior director of industrial leasing. Their client list has included Valspar, Smurfit-Stone, Kohl’s, CR Laurence, Prologis, Prudential, and First Industrial.