What’s in a name, Shakespeare once asked, and Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is now contemplating whether a new moniker would smell as sweet.
Owned by Howard Lutnick’s BGC Partners, which also controls wealth management company Cantor Fitzgerald, the global commercial brokerage is considering chopping its four names down to one: Newmark.
This would be a nod to the company’s past, when it was a family firm known as Newmark & Co., the New York Post reported. According to the report, some in the firm have sought to use “Cantor” in the name, but legacy brokers at NGKF haven’t embraced that pitch.
“We’re working on the rollout of a brand that reflects the fact that we are all family,” Barry Gosin, chief executive of NGKF, told the Post. “We are going to roll out one big brand.”
In 2005, Newmark formed a partnership with British-based Knight Frank, and BGC acquired it in 2011. Since then it has bought into several companies including Grubb & Ellis, Cincinnati Commercial Real Estate and Newmark Grubb Memphis. It also acquired Excess Space Retail Services in 2015.
NGKF counts roughly 13,000 employees in 370 offices worldwide, according to its website. The Post says a name change could be effective as early as March 31. [NYP] — Dusica Sue Malesevic