Blanca CRE hires Phil Marchese from Brightline

Marchese handled leasing for Brightline parent Florida East Coast Industries

Phil Marchese and Tere Blanca
Phil Marchese and Tere Blanca

Brightline’s head of leasing has left the train station.

Phil Marchese joined Blanca Commercial Real Estate as executive vice president as part of the brokerage’s expansion of its agency leasing practice.

Marchese was responsible for leasing and programming of Brightline’s developments in South Florida, including the mixed-use MiamiCentral project, and its downtown Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations. Before he was director of leasing for Florida East Coast Industries, Brightline’s parent company, Marchese was a vice president at Flagler, one of FECI’s companies, in Orlando. He was with FECI for more than five years.

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Marchese has worked on leases with companies that include Starwood Vacation Ownership, CVS Health, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and United Healthcare Group, according to a release.

In October, CEO Tere Blanca hired John Guitar, also from FECI, as managing director and vice chair. And earlier this year, Blanca brought on Peter Romero from Taylor & Mathis to lead a new property management division. 

Marchese and Guitar aren’t the only ones to leave FECI as Brightline launched its South Florida express-train service. A year ago, Vince Signorello resigned as president and CEO of FECI to open his own real estate investment and development firm.