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The adage that strength lies in numbers seems especially true for Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the national commercial real estate firm with 46 offices in the United States, partnerships evolving abroad and in North America, and a bolstering of its five service lines to meet corporate America's needs.
The firm, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, sold or leased more than 85 million sq. ft. of space in 1991, representing a value of' approximately $5.5 billion. It accomplished such a feat with 2,000 real estate professionals.
The name Cushman & Wakefield may conjure up thoughts of strictly commercial building buying or leasing, but this firm has emerged beyond brokerage during its 75-year history to include market segments within its company geared to five key areas of real estate--commercial and industrial/technical brokerage, appraisal, management, development consulting and financial services.
The firm was founded in 1917 by brothers-in-law Bernard Wakefield and J. Clydesdale Cushman who had opened a management company at 42nd Street and Madison Avenue in New York. Property management continued to be the focus of the firm until 1947, when a sudden building boom caused the company to consider entering the leasing market.
The firm has been a subsidiary of The Rockefeller Group since 1976. In 1989, Mitsubishi Estate Co. became a major shareholder of the Rockefeller Group.
FIRM HAS EXPANDED SERVICES
C&W appears to have looked into a crystal ball recently and glimpsed a view of the future, basing its business decisions on providing increased services to U.S. corporations, while at the same time forging important links abroad, namely its almost two-year-old joint initiative with Healey and Baker, a London-based European commercial real estate firm.
But, says Arthur J. Mirante II, president and chief executive officer of Cushman & Wakefield, it is not enough to provide increased service unless the end result leaves a client satisfied with the quality received. By providing value for the dollar, C&W has seen its management services group catapult to a $10 billion portfolio of more than 100 million sq. ft. of commercial, industrial and retail property, more space than is entrusted to any other non-owner business entity in America.
And as corporate America has shrunk its in-house real estate departments, which normally would have maintained buildings...