The nonprofit community increasingly commands a hefty portion of the New York City real estate market, which has prompted commercial brokerage CB Richard Ellis to start a new division to handle the needs of this sizable clientele.
New York is home to more nonprofits than any other city except Washington, D.C., and not-for-profit organizations, from arts groups to social service operations, occupy about 10 million of the more than 440 million square feet of commercial space in Manhattan alone.
CB Richard Ellis is the latest firm to start up a nonprofit division, following the lead of Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers ABR in officially dedicating staff to serve the specialized customer base.
Part of an attempt to formalize an ongoing practice, the division is headed by senior vice president Susan Kahaner and recently minted vice president Suzanne Sunshine, who was hired from Cushman & Wakefield this summer.
The new group will handle leasing, sales and acquisitions for nonprofits in the tri-state area and throughout the country. It has already worked on deals in the city for the Foundation Center, the American Ballet Theater, the Actors Fund of New York, and the Phoenix House.
Kahaner has brokered space for nonprofits for two decades. The new group, with Sunshine hired from directing Cushman & Wakefield’s own 2-year-old nonprofit effort, is supposed to heighten CBRE’s focus on the sector. That focus will include targeting nonprofit-friendly landlords, Kahaner said, and helping nonprofits negotiate moves from Midtown and Midtown South to take advantage of incentives for moves Downtown.
“We’re creating a group here that has the ability and the intellectual capacity and capital to service all the possible needs of the nonprofit community,” Kahaner told The Real Deal in late August. “It’s a much more meaningful group in that we really do specialize in market information that is relevant to the nonprofit community.”