Cushman bolsters Texas services; SRS expands D.C. retail operations; BioMed grows West Coast life science team

Celeste Fowden rejoined Cushman & Wakefield as director of brokerage in the firm’s Austin and San Antonio operations. The brokerage said she will oversee talent recruitment, business development and related client services as Cushman looks to expand its regional presence.

Fowden has more than 20 years of industry experience, with a previous tenure on Cushman’s office capital markets team. The Texas Christian University graduate has closed more than 800 transactions involving 9 million square feet of office space in the Dallas and Austin regions, representing clients such as Metropolitan Life Insurance, KBS Realty Advisors and Trammell Crow.

SRS Real Estate Partners expanded its retail services in Washington, D.C., with the addition of Arris Noble as managing principal and Rachel Callender as vice president. Both joined the firm from JLL.

The brokerage said Noble’s 25-year commercial real estate career includes work with restaurant and retail clients, and he will focus on landlord and tenant representation. The University of Maryland graduate’s prior professional work includes introducing new restaurant concepts in D.C. neighborhoods such as Georgetown and DuPont Circle.

Callender, an Arizona State University graduate, previously handled retail tenant and landlord representation across the Mid-Atlantic region, supporting local rollouts for prominent retail and restaurant brands. She and Noble are both active in the trade group International Council of Shopping Centers.

BioMed Realty, a Blackstone portfolio company, hired Bob Nowak as senior vice president of operations for its West Coast markets. The biotech property investment and development firm said Nowak, a 30-year industry veteran, worked most recently as managing director at JLL and will be based at BioMed’s San Diego headquarters.

Nowak will oversee operations at BioMed properties in regions that include San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Boulder, Colorado. A graduate of Arizona State University and University of Colorado, Nowak’s prior work also included serving as chief operating officer at property management firm Means Knaus Partners. BioMed Realty is among the nation’s largest owner-operators of life science real estate properties.

Kraig Heeter of brokerage Kidder Mathews was named president-elect of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors Foundation, operated by the prominent industry trade association. Heeter is an executive vice president with Seattle-based Kidder and has more than two decades of experience, specializing in industrial properties.

Since 2022, Heeter has served as Washington state regional chapter president for SIOR, among the largest real estate associations with 4,000 members in 50 countries.

The group’s foundation provides research grants and student scholarships through organized donations from group members and supporting companies.

Kidder Mathews said Heeter will serve a one-year term as president of the national foundation.

Alex Lassar joined Newmark as senior managing director in the firm’s San Francisco office, as the brokerage expands services in its technology and innovation practice group. The brokerage said Lassar has 20 years of experience representing office occupiers in the tech industry.

Lassar will aid Newmark’s regional efforts in growing client services geared to artificial intelligence and related technologies, according to Executive Managing Director Jon Mackey.

Newmark researchers said AI companies have increased tech space requirements in 2024, with several large leases signed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Technology-related office leasing is expected to increase nationally in coming quarters with renewed investor interest and increased venture capital funding driven by AI.