CBRE hires office broker Charles Laginestra

CBRE added another top office broker to its New York team.

Charles Laginestra has joined his brother and father at the brokerage after seven years at Fisher Brothers, CBRE announced. Laginestra brokered the largest office lease of 2023 – law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison’s 765,000-square-foot deal at 1345 Sixth Avenue.

Laginestra’s father Michael is a vice chairman at the brokerage, with over 100 million square feet of office leases and three of REBNY’s top dealmaker awards, while his brother Rocco, a tenant representative, has worked at the firm for more than two decades. His uncle, also Charles Laginestra, also works for the firm as a broker in northern and central New Jersey.

During his time at Fisher Brothers, Laginestra leased 62 percent of the landlord’s portfolio. He handled Evercore’s 400,000-square-foot lease at Park Avenue Plaza, Morgan Stanley’s 330,000-square-foot lease at Park Avenue Plaza and ICE’s 145,000-square-foot lease at 1345 Avenue of the Americas.

He spent a year at CBRE before that, and worked for six years as a broker at Trinity Real Estate.

The Laginestra family is one of several dynasties emerging in the commercial brokerage business over the last decade. According to the Wall Street Journal, Michael Laginestra used to drive his kids around and point out buildings where he had recently done deals, saying “If it wasn’t for me, that building wouldn’t have gotten built.”