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Defections in commercial brokerage world raise issues over ‘trailing’ commissions

From the October issue: Like any industry, the commercial brokerage world has its own codes and rituals, many of which seem to crystallize when a tribe member switches allegiances. Those codes have been put to the test lately by a string of high-profile defections by some of New York’s top brokers. But the results have shown a more conciliatory real estate industry than what it is typically perceived.

Take the most high-profile example: the four top commercial sales brokers — Richard Baxter, Jon Caplan, Ron Cohen and Scott Latham — who recently left Cushman & Wakefield for greener pastures at Jones Lang LaSalle.

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As of April — while still at Cushman — the four were marketing the 11-story, 50,000-square-foot Bryant Park office building at 54 West 40th Street, the headquarters for the drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic Daytop Village. The landlord, Allied Partners, is now in contract to pay $26.5 million for the building, a deal the four brokers brought with them to JLL. [more]