Jones Lang Lasalle New's from Costar...

JLL Hires Leading Multifamily Team to Further Expand Apts., Capital Markets Business

Move Part of Firm's Aggressive Multifamily Growth Strategy

Jones Lang LaSalle (NYSE: JLL) announced its second set of major new hires in as many weeks as it pursues an aggressive strategy of bolstering its capital markets practice. This time, JLL tapped veteran investment brokers Al Cissel and Scott Melnick to head its Mid-Atlantic multifamily sales force and help grow the firm's apartment investment business nationally. The brokerage team, both of whom previously served as managing directors for Transwestern's institutional multifamily group, will be based in Maryland. In the last five years, the Cissel/Melnick team has sold more than $5 billion of multifamily property, according to Jones Lang. They will both help JLL grow its multifamily client service capabilities across the nation and bolster its position as a full capital markets player in the Mid-Atlantic region. Cissel and Melnick are joining up with Jubeen Vaghefi, managing director and leader of JLL's national multifamily investment sales practice; Americas Capital Markets President Jay Koster, Mid-Atlantic Market Director Mike Ellis and the Mid-Atlantic Capital Markets and Real Estate Investment Banking teams. "The addition of Al and Scott to our multifamily platform is a critical step in our aggressive multifamily business plan," Vaghefi said. "The two are widely recognized as the leading multifamily brokers in the Mid-Atlantic region and we plan to leverage their experience and knowledge to the fullest advantage for clients all along the Eastern seaboard and across the country." Koster said the hiring announcement quickly builds upon the addition two weeks ago of three leading CBRE mortgage bankers: Thomas J. Melody, Thomas O. Fish and Michael J. Melody, who join Jones Lang as executive managing directors heading its Real Estate Investment Banking (REIB) business in the Americas. They will be based in Houston. All the moves come as the apartment and condominium investment market appears to be heating up, especially in key markets like Washington, D.C. The apartment sector has absorbed most of its valuation losses and will continue to lead the recovery, with some multifamily assets actually showing slight value increases, according to respondents in the recent first-quarter 2010 PricewaterhouseCoopers' Korpacz Real Estate Investor Survey. According to CoStar Group's Property and Portfolio Research, Inc. (PPR), apartment vacancies should start to fall in the third quarter as job numbers rise, especially among workers under the age of 35. Higher population growth markets, including those in the South, will lead the demand rebound. The Eastern seaboard expansion "is a key strategic multifamily move for us, in arguably the most important multifamily investment market in the country," Koster said. "Combined with recent multifamily investment sales hires in Seattle, Houston and Dallas, we are on target to quickly finalize the development of our national multifamily investment sales and investment banking platform."

Article Source