John C. Cushman, 1941-2023. Picture courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield
Throughout an actual property profession that spanned 60 years, John C. Cushman III left indelible marks on the highly effective companies he led, and the business actual property enterprise at giant.
On the time of his passing final week on the age of 82, Cushman was chairman of International Transactions and chairman of the board of Cushman & Wakefield. The grandson and nephew of the agency’s founders, Cushman was integral to Cushman & Wakefield turning into one of many world’s prime brokerage and property administration corporations. Along with his management prowess, his abilities as a dealer of advanced workplace leases and huge funding gross sales had been legendary, and he was a passionate advocate on behalf of the trade in coverage issues.
A dealmaker at coronary heart
Cushman’s profession started with Cushman & Wakefield in 1963 in New York Metropolis. He moved to Los Angeles in 1967 to begin the agency’s first Southern California workplace. Two years later, C&W’s Western area had grown to be 60 p.c of the corporate’s location. In 1978, Cushman and his twin brother Louis began their very own agency, Cushman Realty Corp. Over the subsequent 30 years, Cushman Realty Corp. grew from two places of work to operations in 11 cities and 200-plus staff. In 2001, the agency merged with Cushman & Wakefield, and Cushman grew to become world chairman of the board of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. When Cushman & Wakefield was bought by DTZ in 2015, Cushman had the chance to return to his brokerage roots as head of International Transactions.
Cushman first gained nationwide recognition as an influence dealer through the workplace growth of the late Nineteen Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties. In Los Angeles, he helped form the skyline by filling new buildings with company heavyweights like Atlantic Richfield Co., Unocal Corp., Crocker Financial institution, Citicorp, Wells Fargo Financial institution and Merrill Lynch.
Throughout the identical period, he negotiated the most important lease in historical past: Merrill Lynch’s $3 billion, 25-year deal for 4 million sq. ft on the yet-to-be-built World Monetary Heart in New York Metropolis. He additionally bought the agency’s former headquarters.
Different landmark offers throughout Cushman’s profession included headquarters relocations for a number of of the nation’s largest firms, together with Boeing in Chicago, Burlington Northern in Seattle, UBS in New York Metropolis and Normal Oil in Cleveland.
Cushman is credited with pioneering the delicate analyses of tenant necessities which are widespread follow right now. He additionally pioneered “fairness offers,” wherein tenants take an curiosity within the initiatives they’re anchoring.
That affect was shared with the brokers and staff who labored alongside Cushman, together with John McRoskey, a 10-year worker of Cushman Realty and now a managing director at JLL. “Those that had been lucky to work for him grew to become the collective stars and leaders of the subsequent technology of business actual property brokers,” McRoskey advised Business Property Government. “He exemplified and demanded from his staff the best requirements of integrity, excellence and efficiency.”
Cushman was recognized for inspecting every side of a constructing, from elevator speeds to window thickness, with a purpose to obtain the perfect outcomes for his shoppers and negotiate probably the most optimum leases for a given house, in keeping with a 1985 New York Occasions Journal profile. “Cushman’s negotiating power rests partially on the boldness company executives place in him,” the reporter wrote.
McRoskey witnessed this first-hand. “Cushman standardized the artwork, the method and the psychology of actual property deal making.” he mentioned.
In 2008, Cushman obtained CPE’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
An advisor and scholar
Cushman was additionally recognized for his intensive advisory and advocacy work, serving on the boards of 14 public firms, in addition to a lot of nonprofits, academic, analysis and philanthropic establishments. Cushman’s roles included seats on the boards of Homeland Safety Advisory Council, the College of Southern California’s LUSK Heart for Actual Property, the College of Colorado Boulder Enterprise College, Fellows of Claremont College Heart and the Boy Scouts of America.
In his time because the director of Actual Property Roundtable, Cushman performed a task in creating a lot of public actual property insurance policies associated to homeland safety, capital coverage, sustainability and taxes.
Jeffrey DeBoer, the suppose tank’s president & CEO, mentioned Cushman’s communication abilities and empathy had been instrumental to the Roundtable’s successes. “He had an uncanny potential to know the attitude of the particular person throughout the desk in coverage discussions,” DeBoer advised CPE. “This talent, coupled together with his relentless focus and his many revered relationships, considerably enhanced the Roundtable’s advocacy efforts.”
Cushman’s consideration to element was one other one in every of his necessary contributions. “He at all times insisted on being totally factually correct, and he understood that, within the coverage making world, you have to work with everybody with a purpose to achieve success,” DeBoer added.
Cushman is survived by his spouse Jeanine, his 4 sons and 10 grandchildren.
