10-MINUTE
Bruce Mosler, Cushman & Wakefield
The industry veteran surveys the
world from his vantage point as
chairman of global brokerage
Mosler: Eternal optimist
in a still-problematic
global environment
Becoming an industry mainstay in New York City calls for a player of high caliber, and Bruce Mosler has a pair of the
Real Estate Board of New York’s “Most Ingenious Deal of the
Year” awards as evidence of his acumen. Yet since joining
Cushman & Wakefield in 1997, Mosler has operated on a global
level, whether advising corporate clients on their real estate
portfolios or serving as C&W’s CEO between 2005 and 2010.
Two years ago, he returned to his roots as a broker while taking on a new challenge: chairman of global brokerage for the
firm. His new assignment went into effect as the real estate markets, domestic and overseas, were shaking off the doldrums of
the 2008-2009 recession, and Mosler tells Real Estate Forum
that the recovery still has a way to go.
Just before year-end 2012, Mosler spoke with Forum managing editor Paul Bubny about the global real estate markets, his
role in bringing C&W’s resources to bear in those markets and
the importance of community involvement. An edited version of
that conversation follows.
PAUL BUBNY: How do you define your role as chairman of
global brokerage?
BRUCE MOSLER: My principal responsibility is production. In
that capacity, we serve a number of clients that are global in nature.
One of the largest and most complex that we’re handling is
Brookfield Office Properties’ Manhattan West, which we’re marketing on a global basis. In the banking and communications industries, there are some longtime clients that I service on all six continents.
I’m also there to help support and pursue global business, so
when our London team is pursuing a major agency in London, I’m
part of the presentation and part of the strategy as to how we’ll market that asset to attract the right tenants. Lastly, I’m responsible for
bringing our people together on an annual basis to discuss best practices: what we’ve learned and how we do it from here on in. If we’ve
done a large transaction or want a large portfolio, we can discuss why
we want it and, in cases where we haven’t gotten it, why we didn’t. It’s
also an opportunity to bring people together to discuss the strategic
direction of the firm as defined by CEO Glenn Rufrano, and give
Glenn an opportunity to talk to top producers around the world.
More importantly, it’s a way to put names to faces, so that our people
around the world know one another.
BUBNY: From your vantage point as chairman of global brokerage, what does the world market look like?
MOSLER: We came through the Great Recession of 2008-2009 with
a significant amount of pent-up demand. In 2010 and 2011, we saw
the benefit of that demand. In Manhattan, for example, we leased
30-plus million square feet in 2010, and that was one of the best years
we’ve had since we’ve been keeping track. That was very reflective of
CEOs coming through the downturn and being able to predict their
revenues with more surety. In the second half of 2011, we saw that
surety begin to deteriorate.
