In a nod to retail’s rising clout in the brokerage world, CBRE’s Richard Hodos has been elevated to vice chairman, making him only the second retail broker in the firm’s 100-year history to achieve the coveted rank.
Hodos took home the Real Estate Board of New York’s “Ingenious Retail Deal of the Year Award” for 2013 for creating a “marriage made in heaven” between Ralph Lauren and Coca Cola at the soft drink giant’s 711 Fifth Avenue. His clients over his 28-year-career include Coach, Microsoft, Tory Burch, Apple and Michael Kors.
“Richard has richly earned a rare Retail Vice Chairmanship with CBRE through his amazing track record of representing high-end retail tenants in Manhattan, particularly in the much-desired upper Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue retail corridors,” Matthew Van Buren, president of CBRE New York Tri-State Region, said in a statement.
At CBRE, brokers are promoted to vice chairmanships based on performance, and professionals working in office leasing and investment sales typically dominate the position, according to CBRE spokesperson Philip Russo.
“It’s a much more difficult bar to get over in retail,” he said.
In 2013, broker Andrew Goldberg was the first retail specialist to be promoted to vice chairman. Hodos told The Real Deal that CBRE is focused on growing its retail business, in turn lifting those professionals’ fortunes.
“I’d like you to think that we’re all stars at what we do. We all are in our own minds,” he said. “In reality, rents have gone up in some cases exponentially versus where they were ten years ago. Correspondingly commissions have gone up. It’s sort of a mathematical function.”