A while back, we looked at Real Estate Alert‘s Ranking of the Top 10 Industrial Brokers for the First Half of 2012. Since the industrial real estate sector has grown significantly in recent months, let’s take a look at the top-performing industrial brokers of 2011 for comparison.
Top Industrial Brokers of 2011:
10. Grubb & Ellis (now Newmark Grubb; 2011 transaction amount, in millions: $55.3)
9. Voit Commercial ($82)
8. Stan Johnson Co. ($137)
7. HFF ($206.4)
6. Cassidy Turley ($345.8)
5. Jones Lang LaSalle ($385.1)
4. Colliers International ($507.6)
3. Cushman & Wakefield ($759.6)
2. Eastdil Secured ($1,028.6)
1. CBRE ($2,752.9)
So, to answer the question I posed in the title–
Top 10 Industrial Brokers of 2011: Where Are They Now?
–the answer is, Pretty much the same place as last year. At least as far as overall ranking goes. When we look at these brokerage’s transaction totals from one year to the next, however, the year-to-year differences become a bit more stark. And I’m not just speaking of Grubb & Ellis’s new ownership and new name. In fact, Grubb & Ellis’s transaction total for all of 2011 ($55.3 million) isn’t too much greater than the firm’s total for just the first half of 2012 ($40.3 million). Apparently, BGC Partners’ decision to buy the bankrupt Grubb & Ellis and merge it with Newmark Knight has already boosted the firm’s activity.
But the most interesting change among the nation’s top industrial brokers, as revealed in the first half of 2012, is this:
The second place winner in 2011 was Eastdil Secured, with a very impressive $1.03 billion in transactions for the year. Fast forward to the first half of 2012, and this firm has already surpassed that amount by June! How does an industrial brokerage, let alone a privately operated one, grow its business that quickly?
To put it simply, I have absolutely no clue. While Eastdil’s work is undoubtedly impressive, it’s worth taking some of these calculations with a grain of salt. As New York’s Real Deal points out, the issues surrounding how brokerages are credited for deals, and how transaction sums are calculated, can be a bit controversial, the details of who did what for whom increasingly murky over time.
So let’s leave a little asterisk beside this whole list, just in case.
Link to the Original