NAIOP NEW JERSEY TO HONOR ANDREW MERIN WITH 2012 IMPACT AWARD
Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Cited for Service, Professionalism, Integrity
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – March 26, 2012 – (RealEstateRama) — Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. Vice Chairman Andrew Merin in May will be honored with the NAIOP New Jersey Impact Award, which recognizes distinguished commercial real estate trendsetters. A Fort Lee, N.J., resident and 42-year industry veteran, Merin heads his firm’s East Rutherford-based Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group.
Merin joined Cushman & Wakefield in 1983 and subsequently co-founded his team in 1987 after a successful, 17-year career as an office leasing specialist. The Metropolitan Area Capital Markets Group specializes in investment sales of office, industrial, multifamily and retail properties throughout New Jersey, New York, Fairfield County, Conn., and Pennsylvania. Since 2000, it has closed in excess of 348 transactions totaling $15.4 billion. This includes 176 office buildings totaling approximately 62.5 million square feet, retail space totaling 20.8 million square feet, industrial space totaling 26.2 million square feet and 38 multi-family properties including 13,905 residential units.
The NAIOP New Jersey Impact Award is presented at the trade organization’s annual gala, to individuals and companies that have shown exemplary service to the industry and community, professionalism, and integrity. Its recipients have had a clear, positive impact on the commercial and industrial real estate industry.
“These criteria could have been modeled on Andy and his career success,” noted Gualberto “Gil” Medina, Cushman & Wakefield’s New Jersey executive managing director. “These qualities are precisely why his team is so well respected and continually appointed to handle New Jersey’s most important investment sales transactions.”
Cushman & Wakefield’s Joseph Harbert, New York Metropolitan Region chief operating officer, concurred. “Andy’s energetic, intelligent and ethical approach to everything he does has an immeasurable ripple effect,” he said. “His involvement and relationships literally have helped to shape the regional landscape for real estate investment.”
Merin and his partners have been awarded the New Jersey NAIOP Creative Deal of the Year award six times and the Westchester NAIOP Creative Deal of the Year award once. Merin, himself, for the past two years has been recognized among the NJBiz “50 Most Powerful People in New Jersey Real Estate.”
During his tenure with Cushman & Wakefield, Merin consistently has performed among the top two percent of all brokers for production and has received numerous in-house honors, including the Leone J. Peters Award, which named him as the company’s Leading Brokerage Professional. For several years, he served as a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and Audit Committee.
Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Merin was a principal and executive vice president with Baker Merin Associates, Inc. Before forming Baker Merin Associates, he was a vice president and co-branch manager for Sutton and Towne’s New Jersey branch office (predecessor to Coldwell Banker’s New York operation).
Throughout his career, Merin has made a significant effort to give back to the industry and community. He has trained some of the profession’s most successful brokers. He is a regular lecturer for the MBA program of the NYU Stern School of Business. Merin consistently volunteers his time and expertise as a panelist at trade events and meetings for organizations like NAIOP, ULI, IOREBA, RealShare and others, and as a source for a range of real estate publications.
For a number of years, Merin fulfilled the role of vice chairman for Murray and Lee Kushner’s “Musical Moment for MS.” In 2004, the Hebrew Academy for Special Children bestowed its Humanitarian Award on Merin and his wife, Violetta. He also serves on the board of the Arthur Zimtbaum Foundation, which annually allocates substantial contributions to a variety of charities.
At his alma mater, Bucknell University, Merin established a full scholarship program in his father’s name and consistently mentors students and graduates, several of whom he has employed as interns. He also established a fund to support the faculty at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.
Gala tickets are on sale and details can be found at www.naiopnj.org/25Gala.
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Media Contact:
Evelyn Weiss Francisco: evelyn (at) caryl (dot) com, (201) 796-7788, www.twitter.com/carylcomm
