BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

As international director and chief operating officer for New York City and tristate operations for Jones Lang LaSalle, Stephen Schlegel oversees the bustling New York City market, along with the surrounding markets in New Jersey and Westchester County. Since Mr. Schlegel took over the position in 2005, the brokerage firm’s tristate business has seen its revenue increase fivefold, and has employed more than 1,000 professionals. Mr. Schlegel spoke with The Commercial Observer last week about the lingering uncertainty in the market and how New York City and neighboring territories can adapt to that unknown future.

The Commercial Observer: How would you describe your overall role at Jones Lang LaSalle? Is there much overlap with Jones Lang LaSalle New York and tristate operations President Peter Riguardi? Mr. Schlegel: Riguardi and I operate as partners in running the business. He focuses more externally: client relationship and executing transactions and revenue generation. And I tend to focus more internally, operating the business.

Jones Lang LaSalle is a public company, so we have a fair amount of rigor around how we run the business. We want to have operating procedures in all of our businesses, we want to run our businesses profitability. Our goal is not really to grow revenue; it’s to grow profit.

My focus on the business day to day, and my mandate and the number one mandate I have, as does Peter, is to grow the business. We want to grow; we want to develop a plan to generate sustainable, profitable growth and increase our market share in the region. This is our biggest and most lucrative region for real estate, for any real estate services company in the world.

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BY DANIEL GEIGER

Chase Welles never needed a Manhattan office address to execute big deals. But now he has one, and a new firm too.

For years, Mr. Welles has been one of the city’s top retail brokers despite being based in White Plains—an unusual headquarters for such a prolific and successful deal-maker in Manhattan, well-known for its clubby retail industry.

Recently, however, Mr. Welles relocated to an office overlooking Columbus Circle. Meanwhile, the firm where he is a principal, Northwest Atlantic, merged with the Shopping Center Group, a national retail services company in Atlanta.

The changes are not mutually exclusive. Before the merger, Northwest Atlantic (which will now be known as SCG Retail) only did tenant representation work, a specialty at which it excelled. Mr. Welles represents a long list of top-tier tenants, including Whole Foods, for which he just negotiated a new store on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg in one of the year’s most prominent and impactful retail deals. The lease single-handedly put Williamsburg on the map for major national retail chains, and it now appears poised to become one of the city’s next great retail neighborhoods.

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BY DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN

Cushman & Wakefield has been tapped as the exclusive leasing agents for 1250 Broadway, a 773,887-square-foot Class A office building jointly owned by Jamestown Properties and Murray Hill Properties, The Commercial Observer has learned.

A leasing team headed by Mitch Arkin, Peter Alden and Michael Blanchard will be joined by Courtney Adham and Lauren Hayes from Cushman & Wakefield’s strategic agency services group.

Cushman & Wakefield will be replacing Murray Hill Properties as the Midtown South building’s exclusive leasing agents in the move.

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BY CARL GAINES

Chandan Economics and the Mortgage Bankers Association released data last week that points to continued improvements in the commercial real estate market.

Chandan released its Q2 2012 Bank CRE Default and Lending Report, which analyzed Q2 call report data. This data showed that the default rate on commercial mortgages held by banks had fallen to its lowest level since the middle of 2009—to 3.11 percent. This marked a 34 basis point drop when compared to the previous quarter.

The multifamily default rate improved as well, falling to 2.03 percent. At the same time, lending picked up for this sector. Net lending on behalf of banks to commercial property and multifamily borrowers increased by nearly $5 billion for the quarter.

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