Peter Berk and Dave Millard become Principals at Avison Young

Leading Virginia leasing team joins Avison Young
from Cushman & Wakefield to grow service platform in Washington DC area

WASHINGTON, DC, April 8 /PRNewswire/ - Keith Lipton, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company's Washington, DC Metro Region offices, announced today that industry veterans Peter Berk and Dave Millard have joined Avison Young as Principals.

Effective immediately, Berk and Millard join Avison Young's leadership team in the DC region. Based in the company's Tysons Corner, VA office, they will focus primarily on agency leasing as well as tenant representation in Northern Virginia. Recognized as one of the region's top real estate teams, Berk and Millard were most recently Executive Directors with Cushman & Wakefield in McLean, VA.

"Dave and Peter are two of the top real estate professionals in the region and we couldn't be more pleased to have them partner with us at Avison Young," comments Lipton. "These appointments facilitate our ongoing commitment to provide the broadest and most comprehensive range of real estate services to our local and national clients. With more than 25 years of experience each in the industry and the Greater Washington Metropolitan area marketplace, Peter and Dave will provide clients with the guidance, industry experience and most effective strategies to meet their real estate needs."

Berk and Millard each bring to Avison Young 27 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry and have been partners for 26 years. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Berk and Millard were Senior Vice-Presidents and shareholders at Transwestern Commercial Services and Senior Vice-Presidents and Partners at Smithy Braedon/Oncor International.

Team members Nick Gregorios (Senior Associate) and Julie Johnson (Client Services Coordinator) also join Avison Young's Tysons Corner office from Cushman & Wakefield.

Avison Young is Canada's largest independently-owned commercial real estate services company. Over the past two years, the company has grown from 11 to 23 offices and from 300 to more than 700 real estate professionals across Canada and in the U.S.

"We are extremely pleased that Peter and Dave have agreed to join the firm. They are certainly one of the leading leasing teams in the DC metropolitan area and have a stellar reputation for outstanding service and results for their clients," notes Earl Webb, Avison Young's President, U.S. Operations. "As we continue to build our service platform in the DC area, Dave and Peter will be instrumental in those efforts and also as we expand our leasing business across all of North America."

"Our team was attracted to Avison Young's client-focused platform of integrated services as well as the leadership and growth opportunities Avison Young's ownership structure will afford us," says Millard. "We are excited to be part of Avison Young's expansion in the Washington DC region and look forward to continuing to provide our clients with strategic advice and the highest level of quality service."

Berk adds: "Avison Young's approach to be an alternative choice in service providers in the Washington DC area as well as the company's commitment to build the premier full-service brokerage firm for our clients were key points in our decision to help grow the company."

Over the last three years, the Berk-Millard team completed more than 200 transactions. Past and current clients include: ING Clarion Partners, The Shooshan Company, TA Associates, JBG, TIAA-CREF, Foulger-Pratt, KBS Realty Advisors, BPG, Stuart H. Miller Company, Boston Properties, Miller Global Properties, Brookfield, State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, Northwestern Mutual, NRECA, Principal Real Estate Investors and MRP/Angelo Gordon.

Dave Millard

Millard was most recently an Executive Director at Cushman & Wakefield. Over the past 27 years, he has focused his efforts on landlord representation and corporate tenant representation services throughout the Greater Washington Metropolitan area. His experience spans a wide range of real estate transactions on behalf of his clients, including lease acquisitions and dispositions, build-to-suits, investment sales and structured financing. He has been involved in more than 6 million square feet (msf) of real estate transactions since 1996.

Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Millard spent eight years with Transwestern Commercial Services as Senior Vice-President of Owner Advisory Services. In that position, Millard specialized in office leasing and sales in Northern Virginia and was a stockholder in the firm. Millard was also a Partner at Smithy Braedon during his tenure there from 1984 to 1996.

Millard began his real estate career in 1980 with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). While at SOM, he was the project manager for the interior design of the 350,000-sf Terrace Building expansion of the National Geographic Society headquarters. In 1982 and 1983, Millard was Director of Interior Design for Ellerbe Associates (now Ellerbe Becket).

Millard has consistently been named one of the Top 10 brokers in Virginia by the Greater Washington Commercial Association of Realtors. He is Vice-Chairman of Northern Virginia NAIOP; serves on the Board of Directors and is a member of the Executive Committee for Northern Virginia NAIOP; and is the incoming Chair of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the March of Dimes. He was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa between 1971 and 1975. Millard holds a Master's Degree in business administration and finance from Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland and an undergraduate degree in government from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Peter Berk

Berk was most recently an Executive Director in the McLean, Virginia office of Cushman & Wakefield. During his 27-year career, he has focused his efforts on agency leasing and corporate tenant representation services throughout the Northern Virginia area. At Cushman & Wakefield, Berk was one of the firm's Top 100 brokers nationally for the last three consecutive years (2008-2010) and was consistently a Top 10 producer in the DC region. Berk has completed sales, joint ventures, equity leases and build-to-suit transactions; and sold institutional investment-grade office buildings, air rights and land for commercial and multi-family development. He has been involved in 6 msf of commercial real estate transactions. Berk has done work on behalf of many institutional, national and local owners and developers with assets in the DC Metro area.

Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Berk spent eight years with Transwestern Commercial Services as Senior Vice-President, specializing in office leasing and sales transactions in Northern Virginia. He was also a Partner in the firm and served on the Board of Directors. Berk began his real estate career in 1984 with Smithy Braedon/ONCOR International and served as Senior Vice-President and Partner during his 10-year tenure with the firm.

Berk has received recognition for his achievements in real estate, including: Rookie of the Year (1986), Outstanding Producer, Chairman's Circle, and numerous Excellence Awards. More notably, he has been the recipient of Transwestern's National Agency Leasing Award (2002, 2003) and National Top Producer of the Year Award (2000, 2003). He was also named Transwestern's Top Agent in the company nationally (2000), and awarded the Top Leasing Agent in Virginia Award (2008) by the Greater Washington Commercial Realtors Association.

Berk is currently a member of the Washington Area Commercial Brokers Council and the Council's Multi-Million Dollar Club. He formerly served on the Board of Directors of the Ballston Partnership (and as Chair of the real estate marketing committee for the Rosslyn-Ballston Corridor); and also serves on the Board of Directors for both Synetic Theatre and the Rosslyn Business Improvement District (BID). Berk graduated from Georgetown University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in economics.

Founded in 1978, Avison Young is Canada's largest independently-owned commercial real estate services company and the only national, Canadian-owned, principal-managed real estate brokerage firm in the country. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario and ranked among Canada's leading national commercial real estate organizations, Avison Young is a full-service commercial real estate company comprising more than 700 real estate professionals in 23 offices across Canada and in the U.S. The company provides value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial and multi-residential properties.

•Editors/Reporters: please click on links to view and download photos of Peter Berk and Dave Millard
http://www.avisonyoung.com/library/pdf/Van_Research/Berk_Peter.jpg
http://www.avisonyoung.com/library/pdf/Van_Research/Millard_Dave.jpg

SOURCE Avison Young (Canada) Inc.