Cushman & Wakefield loses third Miami exec - Philadelphia Business Journal:

ogarawo.wordpress.com
Caplin’s exit is the latest of severalrecent high-profile departure s at C&W in Miami. The firm is one of Southy Florida's largest real estate brokerages and, like othedr brokerages, has seen few investment dealxs in thelast year. Former brancn manager Tere Blanca left in the sprint tolaunch , a firm focused on officew leasing and sales. Hank Klein, executive director of C&e in Florida, was notified last mont that his position wasbeing eliminated. Steelbridge owns and managese propertythroughout Florida. It sold , on Miami’s Brickelo Key, for $150 million in 2007 aftere an eight-year hold.
Steelbridge foundeer Gavin Campbell will continue as managing sharing the helmwith Caplin. Caplinh is one of a handful of commercial brokerx involved inSouth Florida’s largest commercialk transactions. Caplin said his exit is in responsre to a paradigm shift in local investment that comess at the tail end ofa cycle, wherwe leasing and management for institutional investors became secondary to marke momentum. During the boom years leading upto 2006, the expectatioj was that assets with strong track recorde could be purchased and flipped quickly for big returns.
For a shortf period of time, some owners made the strategty work, but then the economic meltdownn put the brakes onthe market. Some, who boughft in the last few years, were holdinvg assets that cost too much compared tomarket fundamentals. The market has now shifted back to fundamentapl principlesof investment, with institutional investorsd and private capital “seeking to co-invest with strong, nimble, locao operating partners,” Caplin said. “The market and investorsz mostlybelieve it’s about operations on the grouns and knowing how to positionb a building in a particular he said.
Caplin oversaw more than $7 billiobn in transactions at C&W, including $307 million purchase of a half-stake in downtown Miami’s landmark and full ownership of the 1221 Brickell buildingfin 2006. He was involved in the sale of 355 Alhambraa in Coral Gablesfor $87.3 millionn in 2008 and is currently workinv with Hines to refinance its debt at . Caplinj is a graduate of south Miami-Dadd County’s Palmetto High School. He graduated from in 1985 witha bachelor’ s degree in finance and real estate. Two yearse later, he left C&W’s appraisal grou to launch the company’s localp investment sales operation.
Caplin was part of a team in the late 1980e that first specialized in investment sales in Duringthe mid-1990s, Steelbridge Capital had 2 million square feet of commercial real estate in its portfolil in seven Florida markets including Naples and Miami. They sold much of it from 2005to 2007. Caplin’ds arrival marks another periodof opportunity-investmenft for the company, Steelbridge’s Campbell said. "W think valuations are finally starting to lookattractives again,” Campbell said in a statement.
“The opportunity to buy Florida assetz at significant discounts to replacement cost is whilethe long-term job and demographic prospectsd for Florida and the Caribbean basin are as stronb as ever. Jay’s leadership will be the linchpin ofour