 |
Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey, Inc.
One Meadowlands Plaza, Suite 1100
East Rutherford, New Jersey 07073
Download Word Doc: Click Here
Request Hi Res Photo: Click here
Release Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Media Contact: Evelyn Weiss Francisco (201) 796-7788
Honor Recognizes Significant Influence on New Jersey Commercial Real Estate
MORRISTOWN, N.J., April 29, 2014 – Cushman & Wakefield Executive Vice Chairman Robert J. Donnelly, based in the firm's Morristown office, will accept the NAIOP New Jersey Impact Award at the commercial real estate trade organization's annual Gala on Thursday, May 15. The honor recognizes distinguished industry trendsetters who have significantly influenced New Jersey's commercial and industrial real estate development industry.
NAIOP New Jersey Impact Award recipients are selected based on their service to the industry and community, professionalism and integrity, and overall industry contributions. Vision Real Estate Partners Founder Sam Morreale, a long-time client of Donnelly's, will accept this year's second Impact Award on behalf of his Mountain Lakes, N.J., firm.
"Our recipients' vision, incredible success and generosity – both professionally and personally – truly set them apart," said Michael McGuinness, NAIOP NJ's CEO. "Their long-standing relationships with some of our state's most prominent tenants and industry leaders are the greatest testament to their accomplishments."
A 34-year Cushman & Wakefield veteran, Donnelly specializes in major corporate advisory, and tenant and landlord representation. Among his very first assignments at Cushman & Wakefield, in 1980 Donnelly was appointed exclusive leasing agent for Headquarters Plaza, a 560,000-square-foot tower then under development in Morristown. Thirty-three years later, that agency may well be one of the longest-running continuous brokerage assignments in the country.
Within the Cushman & Wakefield organization and throughout the industry, Donnelly is credited with being a frontrunner in the development of comprehensive corporate services. For example, Donnelly has served as Account Executive for AT&T since 1993. Similarly, for many years he acted as Account Executive for General Electric and continues to serve in an Executive Advisor capacity for that account. A number of his relationships – with AT&T, General Electric and Alcatel-Lucent Technologies, to name a few – started in New Jersey and now extend globally.
From a transactional perspective, Donnelly's involvement with major developers and corporate users, and the resulting significant Garden State deals, remains unparalleled. In 2013, his team received the NAIOP Deal of the Year Award (for the second time in three years) recognizing its involvement – with Morreale – in Bayer Healthcare's 2012 acquisition of 94 acres in Whippany from Vision Equities/Rubenstein Partners, on which the pharmaceutical giant's new, 675,000-square-foot East Coast headquarters recently opened.
Donnelly's team is a NAIOP Deal of the Year Finalist once again in 2014, nominated for its involvement in the sale of the 2 million-square-foot, 472-acre former Bell Labs research facility in Holmdel. The transaction marked the culmination of an 11-year endeavor to secure and define the future of this historically significant property. Somerset Development will transform the building, designed by renowned architect Eero Saarinen, into a dynamic, mixed-use town center.
Overall, Donnelly has been instrumental in Cushman & Wakefield's leading role in the suburban New Jersey office market. He opened the firm's Morris County office in 1983, recognizing the region's untapped potential. Over the past three decades, he negotiated sales involving more than 3,000 acres of land that resulted in 20 million square feet of office construction – much of which is suburban product. He has completed transactions involving hundreds of companies, including oversight responsibility for leases and sales totaling more than 100 million square feet.
Donnelly is a member of Cushman & Wakefield's Executive Advisory Board. He also serves on the Real Estate Fundraising Board at Morristown Hospital, and he actively supports his community through involvement in multiple philanthropic organizations.
Gala tickets are on sale now, with details available at www.naiopnj.org/Gala27.
###