A six-member team led by Mindy Lissner (left) and Bill Waxman has joined Cushman & Wakefield, with a primary focus on industrial leasing in New Jersey and partnering with the firm’s capital markets team on investment sales.
By Joshua Burd
A team led by two of the state’s top industrial brokers has joined Cushman & Wakefield, bringing a vast network of owner and occupier clients in an asset class that has soared to unprecedented levels in recent years.
The six-member team, led by industry veterans Mindy Lissner and Bill Waxman, will focus primarily on industrial leasing in New Jersey and will partner with C&W’s capital markets team on investment sales, according to the real estate services firm. Lissner and Waxman join the company as vice chairs, making the move alongside David Gheriani, Christine Eberle, Chris Griffith and Michelle Merkel.
All six professionals were previously with CBRE. They will be based in C&W’s East Rutherford and Iselin offices.
“We are honored to welcome this industry-leading team to Cushman & Wakefield,” said Peter Bronsnick, the firm’s New Jersey managing principal. “Bill and Mindy have a longstanding history of performing on behalf of their clients and their reputation as one of the tristate’s most knowledgeable industrial brokerage teams proceeds them. The entire team will benefit from and contribute to our culture of collaboration, teamwork, respect, excellence and ultimately winning.”
“Cushman & Wakefield is committed to promoting an inclusive culture that celebrates its people and their ability to demonstrate a technical acumen across all asset classes. The addition of this best-in-class industrial team is just the beginning of our journey and we are thrilled they have chosen to join us.”
Lissner has more than 30 years of experience in industrial brokerage, specializing in industrial property acquisition and disposition services, strategic planning and implementing network optimization studies and market evaluation and analysis, C&W said. Her expertise includes the sale and leasing of warehouse and distribution facilities, manufacturing, food-grade, triple-net leased sale and leasebacks, industrial investment sales and land site development.
Over the course of her career, Lissner has completed transactions valued with total consideration in excess of $10 billion, according to a news release. The University of Delaware graduate is a member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors.
For his part, Waxman brings 40 years of industry experience and deep knowledge of corporate, industrial, e-commerce and supply chain real estate. C&W noted that he advises clients of all sizes, from Fortune 50 companies to startups, and is viewed as a leader in ports and integrated logistics, working on projects locally, nationally and globally.
Waxman, who holds a bachelor’s in English education from the State University of New York at Brockport, is also a member of both SIOR and NAIOP. Both he and Lissner have received a host of industry accolades and recognition in publications such as GlobeSt and ROI-NJ.
With CBRE, their team completed 205 transactions in 2020, accounting for both sales and leases, valued in excess of $1.6 billion across the globe, the news release said. Over the past eight years, they have completed more than 61 million square feet of transactions and have received NAIOP’s prestigious Industrial Deal of the Year award three times in recent years.
That team also includes Gheriani, who joins C&W as an executive director with 15 years of commercial real estate experience. He specializes primarily in the sale and leasing of industrial properties along the New Jersey Turnpike corridor, with a niche in food and cold storage facilities.
Eberle, who comes to the firm as a managing director, has 18 years of industry experience on the landlord, investor and service sides of the business. Cushman touted her knowledge of leasing and asset management, while noting that she received an honorable discharge from the New Jersey Army National Guard and attended Rutgers Business School’s Business Management Program in Newark.
Griffith joins the firm as a senior associate, representing both occupiers and investors in northern and central New Jersey, the news release said. During his career, the University of Central Florida graduate has been responsible for tracking prospective clients’ local and regional activity and conducting extensive industry and property research for business development pursuits, as well as performing market surveys, lease reviews and summaries and financial analyses.
Merkel, meantime, joins Cushman as a brokerage specialist. In that position, she will play an important role in supporting the team and its initiatives.
