Jones Lang LaSalle


Trained in Manhattan, Graduating to the World
By ALISON GREGOR

TO swim to the top ranks of commercial real estate brokers in New York City, Barry M. Gosin perfected an elegant crawl. But now, as the chief executive of Newmark Knight Frank, he has to maneuver the waters of a much larger pond.

Mr. Gosin's company — formerly known as Newmark & Company, which expanded nationally only about five years ago — sealed a partnership in January with Knight Frank of London, one of the world's largest privately owned property consulting firms. Last year, the firms handled transactions that, combined, were valued at more than $41 billion, with annual revenue of more than $545 million.

Mr. Gosin will oversee the operations in North and South America, while Knight Frank's chairman and senior partner, Nick Thomlinson, will oversee the rest of the offices throughout the world.

Besides supervising Newmark's 26 offices in the United States, Mr. Gosin will have under his auspices five existing Knight Frank offices in Brazil and three that will open later this year in Lima, Peru; Santiago, Chile; and Buenos Aires. Mr. Gosin, 55, who grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, seems eager to take on the global arena. "Someone told me a long time ago, if you don't grow, you die," he said. "Every business has to be dynamic."

Mr. Gosin and a business partner, Jeffrey Gural, bought Newmark in 1978 from Mr. Gural's father, Aaron Gural, who had taken over the company from Dave Newmark, its founder. At the time, Mr. Gosin was a fledgling real estate entrepreneur who had joined the firm to learn how to buy real estate.

And that he did. Mr. Gosin and several Newmark principals have an eight-million-square-foot commercial real estate portfolio that includes the landmark Flatiron Building in Manhattan.
"Aaron Gural came out of the Helmsley-Spear school of real estate," Mr. Gosin said, referring to the real estate company. "He taught us how to buy property, and it was a great platform for us."
Newmark also expanded into development, forming a construction division several years ago that specialized in converting office buildings into apartments. Until recently, Mr. Gosin and his partners, along with the developer David Walentas, owned about 10 buildings in the Dumbo area of Brooklyn, and worked to transform Dumbo from an obscure industrial area into a trendy residential neighborhood.

Mr. Gosin, a history buff, is enthusiastic about a purchase in 2004: for about $4 million his company acquired the former headquarters of Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pa., and the surrounding 125 acres. The deal includes the headquarters building, designed by Sanford White, and three million square feet of structures. Mr. Gosin and his partners envision a development worth more than $400 million that is to include a casino with 5,000 slot machines — state license permitting — a hotel, theater, retail stores, residential buildings and a museum commemorating the country's industrial history.

"The steel for most of the large buildings in New York City was forged here," he said. "This is where the 20th century was built."

But the allure of ownership aside, Mr. Gosin's first love is brokering deals. As he points out, Harry Helmsley, the legendary New York City real estate magnate, also worked as a broker until the day he died in 1997.

"It's an exciting business, and a great way of being a part of what happens in the city," said Mr. Gosin, who began cultivating Newmark's brokerage and advisory division when he sensed a lull in the city's real estate market in the late 80's.

"I saw a disconnect between the fundamentals and the values, so the underlying demand was not there," Mr. Gosin said. "The prices were continuing to go up in the late 80's. Rents didn't go up. It just didn't appear to be right, so we needed to find an alternative to keep us busy."
During Mr. Gosin's tenure, Newmark's brokerage business has flourished.

"We have a unique perspective on the advisory business in that we're one of the few brokerage firms that has a significant investment portfolio," Mr. Gosin said. "And we think that the fact that we own property and the fact that we run property gives us a unique vantage point from which to represent companies who rent space and properties."

Mr. Gosin represents mostly big tenants and has handled some of New York City's largest and most intricate leasing deals, including the consolidation of the new Manhattan headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. at 731 Lexington Avenue, between 58th and 59th Streets, in the One Beacon Court building. (Construction on the Bloomberg Tower was completed last year.)

Mr. Gosin said his team first had to sell the move to Michael R. Bloomberg, the company founder, who was not yet mayor of New York. "My first conversation with Mike went like, 'You're on so many floors, you're in so many buildings, it would be a good opportunity for you when your lease expires to consolidate,' " Mr. Gosin said. "And Mike is fairly glib. He said, 'If you can prove that it makes economic sense, go talk to my head of real estate, and we'll do it.' "
"The exchange probably lasted 15 minutes, because that's about as long as, I guess, Mike would give somebody for the first time," he said.

Mr. Gosin said Newmark then had to persuade the principals at Vornado Realty Trust, the developer, to let Bloomberg lease a portion of One Beacon Court tower, which had not yet been built. It had been largely slated for residential use.

"We went to Steve Roth and suggested that we be the anchor tenant in the base of the building," Mr. Gosin said, referring to the chief executive of Vornado. "At the time, they had a preference for more residential, and had they known the market would have shot up the way it did, they probably would have done even more residential."

Still, the Newmark team pulled off the deal, leasing 700,000 square feet in a building that didn't yet exist, and ensuring that its client, as an anchor tenant, would be able to design the building according to its needs.

"We spent 18 months torturously negotiating a lease for Bloomberg so they'd build a new building" for the company, Mr. Gosin said. "The building, which is beautiful, is designed with Bloomberg specs."

Mr. Gosin said jokingly that he should have been paid by the hour on that transaction. But Jeffrey Gural, the chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, said, "As a broker, Barry's real strength is he really and truly tries to do a good job for his client — even if it means not making a commission."

Mark Weiss, an executive vice president at Newmark who joined from a competing brokerage firm, Studley, almost four years ago, described Mr. Gosin as a caring boss. Shortly after arriving at Newmark, Mr. Weiss said, he discovered that his wife had breast cancer.
Mr. Gosin "walked into my office, put his arm around me — and I didn't really know this guy, it was a new relationship — said, 'Anything you need, we're here for you,' " Mr. Weiss said. "He had promised a pretty big bill of goods, and he has delivered on all fronts."

BUT does Mr. Gosin also have that toughness to lead a company on a large and impersonal global front, against giant competitors like CB Richard Ellis, Cushman & Wakefield and Jones Lang LaSalle?

Perhaps a clue lies in his tennis game.

When osteoarthritis was diagnosed in his left shoulder several years ago, Mr. Gosin, a southpaw, learned to serve "righty" and continued to dominate his competitors.

Mr. Gosin will need to be just as adaptable to succeed in the global commercial real estate market.

"Barry's as good as they come," said Robert J. Alexander, chairman of the New York regional practice at CB Richard Ellis. "But I think his company's got a lot of challenges ahead, and the results will speak for themselves over the next few years. Clearly, this is no slam-dunk."