8:00 AM
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is pleased to announce that Fred Smith has joined NGKF as vice chairman. Smith has completed more than 30M square feet of tenant representation assignments for major organizations including Facebook, AT&T, Metropolitan Transit Authority, XL Global Services, CBS Corporation, PwC, Oracle, Air France, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Macromedia and more.
Prior to joining NGKF, Smith served as vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, where he worked for 31 years. In 2016, Smith lead a team that secured the leasing agency of 717 Fifth Avenue; a prestigious 350,000-square-foot Plaza District building. Smith was responsible for sourcing in 2015 The Sears Holdings Transfer of 261 stores totaling 42 million square feet, into a REIT, enabling Sears to raise approximately $2.7 billion. Smith and his team represented Bayern LB in the restructure of a 100,000-square-foot lease, and in selling a 25% interest in 560 Lexington Avenue. In 2014 he represented Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial groups, in a headquarter lease for 210,000 square feet at 1221 Avenue of the Americas. With a transatlantic team, Smith represented XL Capital in its consolidation of six locations into one European headquarters in London. A condo interest was created with Marks & Spencer. XL sold and leased back its space and took a profit of $55 million in three weeks (from purchase to close). At closing, this was the largest global transaction between Cushman & Wakefield U.S. and European operations and Smith received the firm’s Global Deal of the Year recognition. Smith with a bi-costal team also closed the largest sale leaseback in Silicon Valley history, the ninth largest real estate transaction in the United States that year. The transaction involved an 800,000-square-foot corporate campus synthetic lease conversion in Mt. View, California, that was sold to Goldman Sachs and now operates as Google’s headquarters.
NGKF Chief Executive Officer Barry Gosin said, “The commercial real estate business has been commoditized at some level in recent years. Distinguishing our firm is imperative for expanding our practice and NGKF has many unique beneficial features that has helped bring one of the City’s best brokers to our team.” He continued, “From our group of accomplished brokers to our uniquely experienced management, we perform as a team, focused on securing the interest of the client first and foremost. With the addition of Fred, our exceptional team of top tier professionals is now even stronger.”
“NGKF has offered me the opportunity to design and build an extraordinary practice based on the pillars of my past accomplishments through the distinct factors inherent in NGKF’s structure and management,” said Smith. “The firm has many truly talented professionals, as well as a broad international platform that includes leasing, a deep bench in global capital markets, corporate services and extensive consulting capability and more. That combination and the genuine collaborative environment greatly enhances our ability to serve our clients.”
“Thus far in my career, I have had the opportunity to work with some of the industry’s iconic figures and the good fortune of having relationships with clients where trust and integrity are first and foremost,” Smith added. “In the course of time, this is the foundation for what I will accomplish with my new colleagues at NGKF.”
Smith is a native New Yorker and current Greenwich, Connecticut resident. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the City University of New York and graduated from New York University’s School of Continuing Education for Real Estate.
About Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank is one of the world’s leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF’s 12,800 professionals operate from more than 370 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.
With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF’s strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF’s full-service platform comprises BGC’s real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.
NGKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit http://www.bgcpartners.com/.