Partners Real Estate has hired John O'Neill, the one-time leader of a large chunk of the U.S. and multifamily capital markets at Cushman & Wakefield, to lead its expansion into the Southeast. Based in Atlanta, O'Neill joined Houston-based Partners as president and managing partner of the Southeast. He'll start June 1 and open the firm's first office outside of Texas, Partners said. In addition to Atlanta, Partners "will also be expanding into the Carolinas, Nashville and across the Florida markets," the company said. Partners is a full-service commercial real estate firm with investment and development businesses, and its colleagues have ownership in the firm, CEO Jon Silberman said. The firm's structure proved critical to O'Neill, who said in a statement that “Partners is the only firm in the industry with this operating model," and it enables the company to attract talent and clients.

O'Neill worked at Cushman & Wakefield from 2003-2023. He served as president of Cushman & Wakefield's multifamily capital markets group during the last two years he was at the global brokerage firm. In that role, he focused on leveraging Cushman & Wakefield's $500 million investment in Greystone by driving revenue across the joint venture. Before that, he served as president of the brokerage's Central region, Cushman & Wakefield's largest geographic area that contains 19 cities in the Midwest and Sun Belt.

JLL has expanded its capital markets team in New York City with the addition of Lauren Kaufman, who has secured or placed more than $5 billion of debt over the past five years. Kaufman joined JLL's New York advisory team co-led by senior managing directors Michael Gigliotti, Christopher Peck and Andrew Scandalios. In her new role as managing director, Kaufman, an industry veteran who has nearly two decades of commercial real estate finance experience, will work with institutional and private clients to structure and execute financing on properties in several asset classes, including multifamily, retail, office, industrial and self-storage, JLL said. Kaufman joined JLL from Cushman & Wakefield, where she was a member of an equity, debt and structured finance team. Before that, Kaufman served as a vice president at Deutsche Bank, where she worked in syndication and loan origination. A graduate of Fordham University School of Law in New York, she started her real estate career practicing law at Alston & Bird, where she represented lenders on several types of loan transactions. JLL's capital markets group has more than 3,000 specialists and offices in nearly 50 countries.

Cushman & Wakefield has grown its global data center advisory group with the addition of Ann Jaggars, who joined the brokerage as a director. Jaggars, who spent the past three years at real estate advisory firm KBC Advisors and is based in Dallas, is now part of Cushman & Wakefield's Dallas-Fort Worth data centers team led by executive managing directors Bo Bond and Ali Greenwood. The team represents clients in emerging and growing data center markets across the globe. Cushman's data center advisory group works with clients on data center strategy development and execution. Its services for data center clients include site selection, representation in transaction negotiations, portfolio valuation, acquisitions and dispositions. Last year, the Bond-Greenwood data center team closed transactions valued at more than $320 million combined, and that involved more than 345 megawatts of load capacity, or the equivalent power used by 200,000 homes, Cushman & Wakefield said. Jaggars said the data center business is poised to grow exponentially, especially with the expansion of artificial intelligence and machine learning. "Data centers’ phenomenal trajectory will continue with advancements in AI/ML and cloud computing, not to mention every-day consumer functions like e-commerce and smart-phone usage," she said in a statement. For Jaggars, her move marks a return to Cushman & Wakefield, where she worked from 2016 to 2020.

Northmarq has opened an office in Philadelphia as part of its Northeast expansion strategy and hired two brokers from Walker & Dunlop to help grow it. Northmarq, based in Minneapolis, said John Banas and Kris Wood joined the firm as senior vice presidents and managing directors to support its growth in the Northeast. They'll report to Jeff Erxleben, the Dallas-based president of its debt and equity group. The Banas-Wood team will focus on agency lending and sourcing debt and equity opportunities throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, Northmarq said. The team, which joined Northmarq on the heels of the firm adding senior debt and equity professionals in Richmond, Virginia, Rochester, New York, and Chicago this year, will also work closely with Northmarq’s regional investment sales leaders, the firm said. Banas and Wood spent the past six years at Walker & Dunlop, where they closed more than $6 billion in commercial real estate financing transactions across several property types, Northmarq said.

Newmark has expanded its retail capital markets group with the addition of industry veteran Conor Lalor as president and head of retail capital markets for North America and Kyle Minter as a senior managing director. Lalor and Minter will focus on the sale, financing and recapitalization of retail and mixed-use properties and portfolios, Newmark said. Lalor is based in Atlanta and Minter in Dallas. Newmark said they will work closely with the brokerage's existing retail capital markets leadership team that includes Pete Bethea in San Diego, Bill Bauman in Los Angeles, Nick Bicardo in San Francisco, Tom Dobrowski in New York and Matt Adler in Washington D.C. Lalor’s team will also collaborate with Mark Masinter, chairman of global retail, and the overall retail services team, the firm said. Before he joined Newmark, Lalor worked for more than 12 years at Eastdil Secured, where he served as a managing director and led its retail business across the Sun Belt and Eastern U.S. His teams have executed transactions with an aggregate value of more than $25 billion in sales, financings and recapitalizations over the past decade, Newmark said.

Waterton, a real estate investment and property management company that focuses on U.S. multifamily and hospitality properties has tapped Erick Harris to serve as executive vice president and general counsel. In his new role, Harris will lead Waterton's legal, risk management and compliance teams and oversee its legal strategies and manage contractual processes, the company said. Harris is a 20-year veteran of real estate investment management and legal compliance. Before joining Waterton, he served as general counsel at real estate investment firm Blue Vista Capital Management. He also led the legal functions and advised senior management on initiatives at Stellar National Life Insurance Co. "Erick's hiring reflects our commitment to driving growth" through partnerships and transactions, Waterton Chairman and CEO David Schwartz said in a statement.

Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp., the capital markets arm of Marcus & Millichap, has expanded in Denver with the hiring of Rob Cronenberg. Cronenberg, who has nearly a decade of commercial real estate experience, joined MMCC from Cushman & Wakefield. In his new role at MMCC, he will focus on capital markets transactions in several property types, including multifamily, hospitality, retail, industrial and self-storage, the company said.

Cronenberg, who has relationships with local, regional and national funding sources, including commercial banks, life insurance companies and debt fund and agency lenders, reports to John Manning, head of production for MMCC’s Western region.