By Joshua Burd
Colliers International Group Inc. has added to its brokerage team in New Jersey with the hiring of a 27-year retail industry veteran.
In a news release, the firm said that Wayne L. Kasbar has joined its Parsippany office as a managing director. Kasbar will focus on the retail sector, coming to Colliers from Silbert Realty and Management Co. Inc.
“The retail industry continues to evolve. And the retail real estate service community needs to keep pace,” Kasbar said in a prepared statement. “Historically, the retail brokerage landscape was defined by regionalized, boutique brokerage houses.”
He added that, as national retail brands “expand their store presence and face increasing pressure to open stores in the tier one markets (and) properties, the legacy transactional service community is often challenged to keep up with the information, software and personnel demands.”
Kasbar, who was an active broker in Manhattan, moved his real estate practice to New Jersey in 2002, the news release said. The Summit resident was a member of Trammel Crow’s retail leasing team and continued in that role after CBRE acquired the firm.
At Silbert, he was a top-producing broker and had oversight of the brokerage team. Over the past decade, he has been involved in $50 million annually in lease transactions.
Kasbar noted that private equity firms, who are increasingly owning real estate, “are seeing the value of a national single point of contact and a vertical integration of service lines” such as brokerage, logistics, industrial and project management.
“In short, we are seeing more and more that national occupiers of space are idea driven and the national real estate service companies are best suited to provide the resources and perspective as a single-source solution,” he said. “Colliers provides that platform. It’s an exciting time to be on their team.”
David A. Simon, executive managing director and New Jersey market leader for Colliers, echoed Kasbar’s statement.
“We are committed to growing our retail practice, and we are excited to have Wayne help us achieve this objective,” Simon said.
