Cushman & Wakefield Welcomes New Miami Team

Robert Kaplan is the latest addition to the Cushman & Wakefield Capital Markets team.

Miami, Fla.—Cushman & Wakefield recently announced that Robert Kaplan, Chris Lentz and Mark Rutherford have joined the Capital Markets team in the Miami office from Ackman-Ziff.

Throughout his career, Kaplan has xlosed more than $9 billion in debt, equity and sales transactions for land, residential, retail, hotel, office, mixed-use and industrial properties. Before transitioning to in-house investment sales and financing for two prominent, private South Florida investors, he used to work in real estate law. In 1998, Kaplan entered the national brokerage industry by joining HFF to lead the financing group in its Miami office. Recently, he served as head of the Florida office at New York-based Ackman-Ziff.

“Robert’s experience in commercial real estate debt, equity and investment sales complements and will build upon Cushman & Wakefield’s well established full-service real estate platform,” said Noble Carpenter, president of C&W’s Capital Markets, Americas group, in prepared remarks.

Lentz, a senior director, and Rutherford, an analyst, bring more than 30 years of combined experience in corporate and commercial real estate financing and sales to the team. After gaining experience at Evercore Partners, Lazard and Lehman Brothers, Lentz joined Ackman-Ziff in 2013. At Cushman & Wakefield, he will focus on originating and executing debt and equity financing transactions. Rutherford has teamed up with Kaplan for more than 13 years to arrange debt and equity capital, as well as orchestrate investment sales in commercial real estate. He began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, later holding various positions in private equity and corporate finance.

Since merging with DTZ last year, Cushman & Wakefield has continued to expand, adding multifamily expert Robert Given and his team, formerly of CBRE, to its Fort Lauderdale office; acquiring Atlanta-based Multi-Housing Advisors and Tampa-based Taylor & Mathis of Florida; and bringing Doug Harmon and Adam Spies to its New York office.

“The world has been watching as Cushman & Wakefield has strategically grown and expanded its offerings to clients. When the opportunity presented itself to join the movement, I couldn’t resist. The firm’s deep pool of professionals with local market knowledge connected through a truly global network is formidable, providing investors at all levels access to a full arsenal of top-tier services. My team and I are thrilled to join such a world-class institution,” said Kaplan.

The addition of Kaplan’s team follows some executive shifts for the company last month, including Joe Stettinius taking on a new position as chief executive of brokearage and capital makrets for the Americas, and Tod Lickerman transitioning from the position of global president to Stettinius’ previous role as chief executive of the Americas.

Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield