By Al Barbarino
Canadian brokerage Avison Young has closed on its acquisition of New Jersey-based project management and development firm The Walsh Company as part of its aggressive expansion, sources told Real Estate Weekly.
The Walsh Co. is a Morristown-based project management firm specializing in project management, tenant and owner representation, led by Edward S. Walsh, with offices in New Jersey, Boston, White Plains, NY and the Washington, DC area.
The firm is currently at work in many of New Jersey’s high-profile real estate projects, with a client list that includes Panasonic, Wyndham Worldwide and BASF.
The firm’s past New York projects include a Quality Hotel renovation, construction management on an Abe & Arthur’s/Simyone restaurant, and a new 482,000 s/f building constructed at 86th Street and Lexington Ave.
Avison Young’s aggressive expansion led to the opening of its first New York office in April and the hiring of former Cushman & Wakefield CEO Arthur J. Mirante III to lead its operations as principal.
Earlier this month, the firm announced that its New York City-based investment sales group was awarded an exclusive assignment to market for sale a four-acre tract of waterfront property in Astoria, Queens.
The team leading the assignment includes Mirante and Principals Jon Epstein, Vincent Carrega, Neil Helman and Charles Kingsley, who are working on behalf of the site’s owner.
The site is located along the Astoria waterfront at 3-15 26th Avenue, and offers views of the Manhattan skyline and the RKF Triborough Bridge.
This month CEO Mark E. Rose announced that it had acquired Starrpoint Commercial Partners, Inc., a full-service commercial real estate brokerage firm that specializes in the Santa Monica submarket of Los Angeles, with emphasis in the representation of high-tech and media firms.
Last month BGC Partners, the global brokerage company that acquired Grubb & Ellis in April, accused Avison Young of stealing their brokers and business opportunities, but the firm has denied the allegations.
In court documents filed by BGC Partners and subsidiary G&E Acquisition Company with the New York State Supreme Court, the company alleged that Avison Young has “tortuously and illegally looted Grubb & Ellis’s commissions, personnel, offices, business, and business opportunities” with the help of Rose, who was CEO of Grubb before he joined Avison Young in June 2008.
Neither Avison Young nor Walsh Co. returned requests for comment in time for publication.
