Rudin's Vision
No other office owner in America may be on the move as much as Brookfield Office Properties, whose 50M SF nationwide is focused on key downtowns, including DC. US CEO Mitch Rudin believes we are "deeply in an era of cities" with 24-hour lifestyles. That's why we're excited Mitch will be keynoting (with Jamestown CEO Matt Bronfman) our Bisnow 5th Annual Washington Real Estate Summit this Wednesday morning at the Wardman Park.
While it's a bit of an irony that we find Mitch here on the beach (in Miami in March with his wife of 31 years, Bonnie, and one of their two sons, 29 year-old Scott with wife Jessie), more often Mitch is in one of the eight big cities where they focus. In NY, Brookfield has revitalized its mammoth 8.5M SF World Financial Center, renamed it Brookfield Place, and is rolling out a $250M new retail space there. It's also building 7M SF Manhattan West, a part of Hudson Yards, the largest development project in US history.
In both LA and Houston, it's become the largest landlord downtown; and it's growing in Boston, Seattle, S.F., and Denver. In DC (with Greg Meyer as local chief and Dave Bevirt as head of leasing), Brookfield is the owner of 11 major buildings downtown as well as more than two dozen in Rosslyn, Reston, Bethesda, and Silver Spring. (You know at least one of them—1625 Eye St, pictured above—if you eat at BLT.) Mitch, a 21-year alum of CBRE (and predecessors Insignia and Edward S. Gordon) who ran its Tri-State region, was tapped three years ago to head Brookfield's US portfolio. He's got the energy for it: When he's not doing tennis, modern American art collecting, or active charity work, he's on the basketball court. With now 26-year-old son Ben, he's even played in the International Maccabi Games, winning two medals with Team USA.
Speaking of athletic top execs, our inquisitor for the Rudin/Bronfman convo will be no less than 1980's Duke football standout Derrick Mashore, now a DC-based managing director for JLL, known as a guru on the association/non-profit front. In a previous life in NYC, he ran corporate services for Cushman & Wakefield, served on its board of directors, and created his own Concordis Partners, at the time America's largest minority-owned and run CRE firm. One of his proudest athletic accomplishments? Daughter Grace, Stanford '12, who played basketball there, and took four trips to the Final Four. Maybe we should put her on the court to give Mitch Rudin the real test. More info on Wednesday's event.
