Global real estate company solidifies S.A. ties

The latest sign of San Antonio's position as a top-performing city in the recession was the arrival this week of four executives from one of the world's largest real estate services firms.

The executives from Cushman & Wakefield were in town to meet with the heads of Cross & Co., a San Antonio real estate firm affiliated with Cushman & Wakefield, and to get a feel for the San Antonio market. They also said there will be a rebranding of Cushman & Wakefield's 43 affiliates. Cross & Co. will become Cushman & Wakefield-Cross & Co.

Leaders at both companies said their clients will benefit from the window Cushman & Wakefield gives San Antonio companies to global markets and the conduit Cross & Co. offers global clients to the local market.

"San Antonio's a market we see has a lot of opportunity for our clients outside of San Antonio," said John Santora, Cushman &Wakefield's president and CEO for the Americas. "It's really a growth market."

The Cushman & Wakefield executives said military medicine jobs being brought to the area by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission along with private employers such as Toyota and Caterpillar Inc., which has a plant under construction in Seguin, make the San Antonio area an up-and-coming market. It's also well-positioned geographically.

"(Interstate) 35 is maybe one of the most important corridors in the country, and this market couldn't be better-situated to take advantage of that corridor," said Jim Dieter, Cushman & Wakefield's executive vice president for industrial brokerage.

Dieter said he was particularly impressed by Port San Antonio. The port has all the necessary components of a major industrial center, he said, with existing structures, room to grow and access to rail and air transportation.

The presence of large companies such as DCT Industrial and ProLogis show San Antonio already is generating interest, Dieter said.

But in an interview with the San Antonio Express-News on Thursday, the mantra for leaders of both companies was "global-local, localglobal."

"It goes both ways," said Ed Cross, CEO of Cross & Co. "It gives global people an access to the local market, and it gives local people
access to the global market."

By Jason Buch - Express-News
Web Posted: 06/11/2010 6:42 CDT

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