JLL makes cuts to I-sales team

JLL has let go some of its high-profile brokers as the battered real estate market continues to squeeze the city’s brokerage firms.

Investment sales brokers Brock Emmetsberger, Tom Gammino and Will Suarez were laid off by the firm, sources told The Real Deal. The reason was poor production as brokers across the city have struggled to complete deals during the pandemic, according to one source.

Representatives for JLL did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The brokers could not immediately be reached.

The trio are alumni of the former Massey Knakal Realty Services, and have closed billions of dollars’ of deals over the past two decades. Emmetsberger, Gammino and Squarez moved over to Cushman & Wakefield when the company bought Massey Knakal in 2014. A few years later, Massey Knakal cofounders Paul Massey and Bob Knakal left Cushman and began recruiting their former dealmakers.

Emmetsberger, Cammino and Suarez were among a group of more than 50 brokers who followed Knakal to JLL, while a number of others went to work for Massey’s new brokerage, B6 Real Estate Advisors. Earlier this year, JLL laid off about two dozen people in its New York City office.

Massey said he was confident the brokers will land somewhere else and succeed, given their strong track records.

“I worked closely with those guys when they were at Massey Knakal,” he said. “They’re all fantastic people and I’m sure they’ll land on their feet.”