Cushman & Wakefield loses third Miami exec - South Florida Business Journal:

nazariomuibepu1687.blogspot.com
Caplin’s exit is the latest of severalprecent high-profile departures at C&W in The firm is one of South Florida's largest real estater brokerages and, like other has seen few investment deals in the last Former branch manager Tere Blanca left in the sprint to launch , a firm focused on office leasintg and sales. Hank Klein, executive director of C&a in Florida, was notified last month that his position wasbeing eliminated. Steelbridge owns and manages propertythroughoug Florida. It sold , on Miami’s Brickell Key, for $150 million in 2007 after an eight-year hold. Steelbridge founder Gavinn Campbell will continue asmanaginf principal, sharing the helm with Caplin.
Caplin is one of a handfuk of commercial brokers involved inSouth Florida’d largest commercial transactions. Caplin said his exit is in responsde to a paradigm shift in local investment that comes at the tail end of a where leasing and management for institutionap investors became secondary tomarket momentum. Duringh the boom years leading upto 2006, the expectation was that assets with strongv track records could be purchased and flipped quicklyt for big returns. For a short period of time, some owners made the strategy work, but then the economivc meltdown put the brakes onthe Some, who bought in the last few were holding assets that cost too much compared to marketr fundamentals.
The market has now shifted back to fundamental principleswof investment, with institutional investors and private capitall “seeking to co-invest with strong, nimble, locap operating partners,” Caplin said. “The market and investors mostlybelievee it’s about operations on the groundx and knowing how to position a building in a particulard submarket,” he said. Caplin oversaw more than $7 billion in transactions at C&W, including ’ $307 million purchase of a half-stake in downtown Miami’s landmark and full ownership of the 1221 Brickel l buildingin 2006. He was involved in the sale of 355 Alhambraz in Coral Gablesfor $87.
23 million in 2008 and is currently workingb with Hines to refinance its debt at . Caplin is a graduatwe of south Miami-Dade County’s Palmetto High School. He graduaterd from in 1985 witha bachelor’w degree in finance and real estate. Two yearas later, he left C&W’s appraisal group to launch the company’sa local investment sales Caplin was part of a team in the late 1980e that first specialized in investment saleesin Miami. During the mid-1990s, Steelbridgr Capital had 2 million square feet of commerciall real estate in its portfolio in seven Florida marketsincluding Jacksonville, Naples and Miami. They sold much of it from 2005to 2007.
Caplin’z arrival marks another periodof opportunity-investment for the Steelbridge’s Campbell said. "We think valuations are finallh starting to lookattractive again,” Campbell said in a “The opportunity to buy Florida assets at significant discountw to replacement cost is imminent, whil e the long-term job and demographic prospecte for Florida and the Caribbean basin are as strong as ever. Jay’s leadership will be the linchpih ofour strategy.
"