Cushman & Wakefield Wins Big At CREBA Awards
Hundreds of D.C.'s top commercial real estate professionals gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in Foggy Bottom Monday evening to celebrate the Commercial Real Estate Brokerage Association's annual awards, showcasing the best deal-makers of 2017.
A wide range of firms received awards, but the big winner of the night was Cushman & Wakefield. In addition to receiving CREBA's award for leasing firm of the year, several Cushman & Wakefield brokers were given the top honors in their respective sectors.
Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Darian LeBlanc won the James L. Eichberg Memorial Award for broker of the year, and he took home the award for top regional General Services Administration leasing agent. LeBlanc, who has been with the firm for 13 years, was integral in one of the biggest federal agency moves last year, representing Boston Properties in landing the Transportation Security Administration's new headquarters at a 625K SF facility in Springfield.
The firm also took home the award for top regional sales agent. Cushman & Wakefield's Bill Collins and Paul Collins were jointly given the award. Their capital markets team finished 2017 on a blistering pace, closing roughly $2B worth of deals over a two-month stretch.
The event began by honoring a Cushman & Wakefield legend who passed away in February. Joe Stettinius helped launch Cassidy Turley in 2010, oversaw the firm's merger with DTZ and then merged that company with Cushman & Wakefield, becoming CEO of Americas for the firm. Stettinius' family was in attendance Monday evening, and the night's top award was named in his honor.
Rand Construction founder and CEO Linda Rabbitt was given the inaugural Joseph Stettinius Jr. Leadership Award. The award recognizes a leader in the industry who is kind, compassionate, visionary and smart.
Rabbitt launched Rand Construction in 1989 and grew it from a small tenant interiors firm to a national construction company with over $300M in annual sales. Rabbitt is also a member of the Federal City Council and sits on the board of The Economic Club of Washington.
Savills Studley Senior Managing Director Wendy Feldman Block received the Brendan McCarthy Memorial Award, which is given to the CREBA member who best demonstrates qualities of unselfishness, caring and giving of oneself to help others. Feldman Block, who was given CREW's Outstanding Impact Award in 2016, has been with Savills Studley since 1987.
Awards were also given to several brokers who performed at the highest level in their sectors last year.
The top landlord developer agent was given to JBG Smith's Andrea Murray. CBRE Vice Chairman David Webb was named the top regional finance agent, and CBRE Senior Vice President Michael Zacharia was named top regional retail agent. CBRE Vice Chairman Lou Christopher was named the top leasing agent for Virginia and D.C., and JLL Managing Director James Cahill was Maryland's top leasing agent.
CREBA also handed out awards for the best companies in other sectors of commercial real estate. Douglas Jemal was on hand to receive the top developer award for his firm, Douglas Development. JBG Smith received the award for the top landlord, and its Central Place development in Rosslyn won Project of the Year.
OTJ Architects won best architecture firm; Bognet Construction won top contractor; JK Moving Services won best moving company; Washington Workplace won best furniture company; and Greenstein, Delorme & Luchs won best law firm. Cushman & Wakefield also won top project management firm, while CBRE was named sales/finance firm of the year.
The Rising Star award went to Cushman & Wakefield Associate Vice President Shaun Weinberg, who works on the firm's capital markets team with Bill Collins and Paul Collins. Weinberg began with the firm, then Cassidy & Pinkard Colliers, as an intern in 2009, and he was hired full time after he graduated from the University of Michigan in 2010.
Cushman & Wakefield's Ryan Lopez was given the Young Brokerage Network Community Service Award. The top 35 and under regional leasing agent award went to CBRE's Brad Wilner, and the top 35 and under regional sales/finance agent went to CBRE's Maxi Leachman.
The top D.C. leasing deal of 2017 went to Yelp signing on for 53K SF at Terrell Place. Maryland's top leasing deal was the Marriott International headquarters relocation, and Virginia's top deal was Nestlé moving to 1812 North Moore St. Host Hotels & Resorts' pre-lease at JBG Smith's 4747 Bethesda Ave. was named top transaction under 75K SF.
The top finance transaction award was given to The Boro, the 4M SF Tysons development that landed $536M in construction financing for its first phase, with help from CBRE. The year's top retail deal was JBG Smith landing Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Crystal City. The top sales transaction of the year was the National Bank of Washington building, which sold to Lincoln Property Co. for $57M.
