Following a bumper 2015 in hospitality real estate, global giant Cushman & Wakefield has launched a Hotel and Tourism Brokerage department in Australia.
Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) is a commercial real estate services company. It is one of the largest such firms in the world, with around 250 offices in over 60 countries, employing over 43,000 people, and generating revenues of $5 billion.
The company’s “quest to be number one in Australia” led it to enlist a team to launch into Australia’s hotel and hospitality market that fit its approach of “deep local and global knowledge”.
Heading up the Australian division is David Lyons, who brings over 40 years’ experience in the field of commercial real estate sales and investment, much in hotels and tourism. Lyons has spent the past five years working in Vietnam as CEO of a rival company, and reports it was the allure of working with C&W that drew him back to Australia.
Alongside Lyons will be Australian hotel veteran Rob Parrott, who has owned, operated and managed licensed venues of all type for himself and large operators. Shifting slightly from his business managing and consulting to hotels on operation and divestment/acquisition, Parrott boasts a strong kinship with both vendors and buyers.
“It is a great privilege for me to be given this opportunity with Cushman & Wakefield, and to have the vast Industry knowledge and experience that David brings to this venture behind me,” offered Parrott.
C&W believe its new Hotel & Tourism Brokerage division, backed by its global team and ancestral mantra to “deliver an exceptional experience for clients”, will bring a new perspective in the Australian pub and hotel real estate space.
“The assembled team brings over 100 years of combined experience in the hotel and tourism sector,” Lyons told PubTIC. “Significantly more than any of our competitors.
“We are excited to offer hoteliers a true point of difference in the Australian hotel market.”
C&W was formed in New York in 1917 by brothers-in-law J. Clydesdale Cushman and Bernard Wakefield. It has regional headquarters in New York, London and Sydney.
Last year it merged with DTZ – a commercial real estate services conglomerate led by private equity giant TPG. The new entity operates under the Cushman & Wakefield brand, while maintaining its approach of innovation through “diverse backgrounds, cultures and expertise”.
