Former New York City Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea is making the leap from policing to property management.
Stephen Ross’ Related Companies hired Shea as president of commercial property management, Bloomberg reported. The veteran police officer will oversee operations at the company’s New York buildings, such as Hudson Yards and the Deutsche Bank Center.
“One of the things about this particular opportunity that really was attractive to me was that it was completely different,” Shea told Bloomberg. “I’ve never had this much time off in the last four decades and I’m itching to go.”
In a statement on Shea’s hiring, Related lauded the former commissioner’s organizational management experience and knowledge of data-driven management strategies, according to Bloomberg.
Shea, 52, spent three decades with the NYPD, ascending to the commissioner role in 2019. He retired from the force at the end of 2021 with the departure of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.
The ties between the NYPD and New York City’s real estate industry run deep.
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Each year, the New York Police Foundation gala brings in thousands of guests and sponsorship from some of real estate’s biggest names to pull in millions for the department.The gala in 2019 raised a record $5.5 million, co-chaired by top executives from Brookfield, Empire State Realty Trust, RXR, Blackstone and Vornado.
Shea isn’t the first former top cop to make the leap to real estate after running the NYPD. Two-time NYPD commissioner Raymond Kelly worked for Cushman & Wakefield in 2014 as head of a new division that advised the company’s clients on crime and terrorism.
The former commissioner will likely have his work cut out for him, as Related recently paid Spitzer Enterprises $77 million for almost all of its ownership interest in three Hudson Yard properties. The deal gave Related 99.9 percent ownership in 17,300 square feet across three parcels at 506 and 512 West 36th Street and 511 West 35th Street. The properties are near where a joint venture among the companies is planning housing.
[Bloomberg] — Holden Walter-Warner