Randel Waites joins Avison Young in Chicago

Innovative industry veteran becomes Principal, will lead firm's local property, facilities and asset management efforts

CHICAGO, April 22, 2015 /CNW/ - Danny Nikitas, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company's Chicago office, announced today the strategic hiring of well-established property management specialist Randel Waites.

Effective immediately, Waites becomes a Principal of Avison Young. Based in the firm's Chicago office, he will provide advisory services to new and existing clients, as well as lead Avison Young's property, facilities and asset management efforts in the Greater Chicago area.

Waites brings more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience to Avison Young, most recently as Senior Managing Director of Corporate Occupier and Investor Services for Cushman & Wakefield's Midwest region, based in Chicago.

"We are ecstatic to have Randy join us here in Chicago. Randy and I worked together in the past with much success and in spirited collaboration," comments Nikitas. "He is a highly regarded industry veteran, and his strategic approach to real estate and deep knowledge of the business are remarkable. Furthermore, his ability to translate that knowledge into creative solutions for clients is unparalleled. Randy will help our already strong property-management platform in every way."  

With the addition of Waites, adds Nikitas, the firm is poised to further expand its total assets under management in Chicago and the Midwest while providing a higher level of service to investors, landlords and tenants nationally and internationally.

Avison Young opened its first U.S. office in Chicago in January 2009 and has been expanding steadily in the local marketplace and Midwest region ever since.

During his career, Waites has provided executive oversight of more than 40 million square feet (msf) of office, industrial and retail properties. He has developed expertise in overseeing property, facilities and assets under management while specializing in agency leasing. He has also participated in a number of notable acquisitions and dispositions. While at Cushman & Wakefield, he also supported a full array of globally integrated services.

"I am pleased to become part of Avison Young and its growing global team of industry professionals," says Waites. "It's an exciting time to be in commercial real estate, especially in the dynamic Chicago and Midwest markets as the U.S. economic recovery picks up steam and clients have greater urgency in terms of finding property, facilities and asset management solutions."

Waites adds: "It's a pleasure to be able to work with Danny again and leverage the many business relationships and partnerships that we have developed in the past. Avison Young has made outstanding progress in a relatively short time in Chicago and throughout the Midwest, and I look forward to the opportunity to contribute to the firm's collaborative, Principal-led culture and client-centric business model."

Before moving to Cushman & Wakefield, Waites served as Chief Operating Officer of John Buck International, helping to establish a property and asset management division based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He compiled a property management and consulting portfolio of approximately 10 msf of office, retail, mixed-use and university facilities. Prior to joining John Buck, he served as Executive Vice-President, Asset Management with Prime Group Realty Trust, a self-managed and administered publicly-traded REIT, where he managed approximately 8 msf of class A and B Chicago and suburban office properties.

In addition, he structured lease transactions covering more than 5 msf and participated in the disposition of approximately 4 msf of office assets as well as the sale of the REIT's controlling ownership to the Lightstone Group. He also acted as asset manager for approximately 38 facilities comprising 4 msf of industrial and mixed-use properties acquired from Sealy in the Southern and Southeast U.S. and Puerto Rico on behalf of Prime Group Realty Trust's parent, the Lightstone Group.

Waites holds a Master of Business Administration from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Illinois State University. He has also obtained his Certified Accountant designation. He is a member of the Marshall Bennett Real Estate Institute Advisory Board, BOMA, Commercial Real Estate Network (CREN), Friends of the Chicago River, Delta Institute, and NAIOP.

Over the past six years, Avison Young has grown from 11 to 66 offices and from 300 to more than 1,700 real estate professionals in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Avison Young is the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its principals. Founded in 1978, the company comprises 1,700 real estate professionals in 66 offices, providing value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial and multi-family properties.

Editors/Reporters

• Please click on link to view and download photo of Randel Waites:
  http://www.avisonyoung.com/sites/default/files/content-files/Media_Room/Temp/Randel_Waites.jpg

For further information/comment/photos:

• Sherry Quan, Principal, National Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young: 604.647.5098; 604.726.0959
  
  
• Danny Nikitas, Principal and Managing Director, Chicago, Avison Young: 312.940.8794
  
  
• Randel Waites, Principal, Avison Young: 312.283.1872
  
  
• Earl Webb, President, U.S. Operations, Avison Young: 312.957.7610
  
  
• Mark Rose, Chair and CEO, Avison Young: 416.673.4028

www.avisonyoung.com

Avison Young was a winner of Canada's Best Managed Companies program in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and has demonstrated its commitment to the program and successfully reapplied for the designation as a Gold Standard winner in 2014. 

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SOURCE Avison Young Commercial Real Estate (BC)

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