Cushman loses top leasing team to Newmark

From left: Andrew Peretz and Ron LoRusso
From left: Andrew Peretz and Ron LoRusso

Cushman & Wakefield has lost a trio of top leasing brokers to Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, a big blow at a time when the firm is battling to maintain its ranking amongst New York’s elite brokerages.

Andrew Peretz, Andrew Sachs and Timothy Gibson announced their defection to NGKF yesterday. “The team resigned as of Wednesday,” Ron LoRusso, Cushman’s New York area president, said in a statement, but provided no further details of their departure.

Peretz’s decade at Cushman had seen him become a Lower Manhattan and Midtown specialist whose team’s clients include Trinity Real Estate, which controls the highly lucrative portfolio of Trinity Church, according to Crain’s.

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In June, Glenn Rufrano, who had been CEO of Cushman since 2010, announced that he was stepping down. Carlo Sant’Albano, the former head of Cushman’s parent company EXOR, took over as interim CEO. Other recent exoduses from Cushman include Mitchell Konsker, Richard Baxter and Scott Latham, who all joined Jones Lang LaSalle.

Meanwhile, NGKF has continued to bring top talent into its ranks. Two years ago, it merged with financial firm BGC Partners, giving it access to Wall Street dollars. [Crain’s]  – Hiten Samtani