As capital markets in the U.S. and elsewhere tighten, Avison Young is working to streamline and enhance its group focused on investment sales, debt and equity financing and other transaction services across the country.
The global brokerage has tapped industry veteran Trisha Connolly, who's worked for several large commercial real estate firms, to be its new chief operating officer of U.S. capital markets. Based in New York City, Connolly has more than 15 years of experience in commercial property transactions.
She fills the position that Jim Kinsey held until his death in September 2021.
Connolly joined Avison Young from real estate finance shop Ackman-Ziff, where she served as a managing director. She also has held leadership positions within Cushman & Wakefield, Alpha Capital CRE and General Growth Properties, now part of Brookfield Properties.
Juan Bueno, Avison Young's president of U.S. operations, said Connolly's "extensive capital stack experience" would benefit the brokerage as it works to expand its financing and investment sales business.
“Streamlining our best practices for intermarket deals and matching our clients with the best possible regional expertise is a top priority for Trisha and will boost our capital market offerings and capabilities," Bueno said in a statement.
Avison Young said Connolly would collaborate with its U.S. capital markets group executive committee and with Bueno and Lisa Jesmer, national director of investor services business development, to create a unified approach to clients and client management. The brokerage hired Bueno just over a year ago to position its U.S. operation for further growth. It hired Jesmer in August to help guide the growth of Avison Young's investor services business in the United States.
The brokerage is fortifying its U.S. capital markets business as access to capital gets tougher. Banks have slowed their lending for commercial real estate deals in anticipation of financial instability. The pullback in lending by banks "has basically slowed down the entire financing system," Walker & Dunlop Chairman and CEO Willy Walker said earlier this month in an appearance on CNBC.
This week, CBRE, the world's largest brokerage based on revenue, said it had begun cutting costs as the capital markets have weakened. The firm said it would eliminate $400 million in spending over the next six months and that layoffs would be part of the cost-savings plan.
Connolly said she would work to leverage Avison Young's data platform to boost the brokerage's capital markets business generation efforts.