Cushman & Wakefield loses third Miami exec - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Caplin’s exit is the latest of severalrecent high-profile departures at C&W in Miami. The firm is one of Southb Florida's largest real estate brokerages and, like other brokerages, has seen few investment deals in thelast year. Former brancj manager Tere Blanca left in the spring tolaunch , a firm focuserd on office leasing and sales. Hank executive director of C&W in Florida, was notified last monthb that his position wasbeingb eliminated. Steelbridge owns and manages propertythroughout Florida. It sold , on Miami’es Brickell Key, for $150 million in 2007 aftere an eight-year hold.
Steelbridge founder Gavin Campbell will continue as managing sharing the helmwith Caplin. Capli is one of a handfukl of commercial brokers involve inSouth Florida’s largest commercial transactions. Caplijn said his exit is in responsr to a paradigm shift in local investment that comes at the tail end of a where leasing and management for institutionak investors became secondary to market During the boom years leading upto 2006, the expectation was that assets with strong traci records could be purchased and flipped quickly for big For a short period of time, some owners made the strategyu work, but then the economic meltdown put the brakee on the market.
Some, who boughyt in the last few years, were holding assets that cost too much compare d tomarket fundamentals. The markeft has now shifted back to fundamental principleswof investment, with institutional investors and private capitap “seeking to co-invest with strong, local operating partners,” Caplin said. “The marke t and investors mostlybelieve it’xs about operations on the ground and knowing how to positionb a building in a particular he said. Caplin oversaw more than $7 billioh in transactions at C&W, including $307 million purchase of a half-stake in downtow Miami’s landmark and full ownership of the 1221 Brickell buildingvin 2006.
He was involved in the sale of 355 Alhambr a in Coral Gablesfor $87.3 million in 2008 and is currentlyg working with Hines to refinanc e its debt at . Caplin is a graduatee of south Miami-Dade County’s Palmetto High He graduated from in 1985 witha bachelor’s degred in finance and real estate. Two years later, he left C&W’xs appraisal group to launch the company’zs local investment sales operation. Caplin was part of a team in the late 1980xs that first specialized in investment salesin Miami.
Duringf the mid-1990s, Steelbridge Capital had 2 millio square feet of commercial real estated in its portfolio in seven Florida marketsincludingb Jacksonville, Naples and Miami. They sold much of it from 2005to 2007. Caplin’w arrival marks another periodof opportunity-investment for the Steelbridge’s Campbell said. "We thinkm valuations are finally starting to lookattractive again,” Campbel said in a statement. “The opportunity to buy Florida assetz at significant discounts to replacement cost is whilethe long-term job and demographic prospects for Florida and the Caribbean basin are as stronhg as ever.
Jay’s leadership will be the linchpibn ofour strategy."