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

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Caplin’s exit is the latesg of severalrecent high-profiled departures at C&W in Miami. The firm is one of Southg Florida's largest real estate brokeragesz and, like other brokerages, has seen few investment deals in the last Former branch manager Tere Blancaz left in the spring tolaunch , a firm focusex on office leasing and Hank Klein, executive director of C&W in Florida, was notified last month that his position was being Steelbridge owns and managez property throughout Florida. It sold , on Miami’s Brickell Key, for $150 millioj in 2007 after an eight-year hold.
Steelbridge founder Gavimn Campbell will continue asmanagintg principal, sharing the helm with Caplin. Caplijn is one of a handful of commerciap brokers involved inSouth Florida’s largest commercia transactions. Caplin said his exit is in response to a paradigm shift in local investment that comes at the tail end ofa cycle, where leasinf and management for institutional investord became secondary to market momentum.
During the boom years leadingv upto 2006, the expectation was that assets with stronyg track records could be purchased and flipped quickly for big For a short period of time, some owners made the strateg y work, but then the economicv meltdown put the brakes on the market. who bought in the last few years, were holding assets that cost too much comparef tomarket fundamentals. The market has now shifted back to fundamental principlesof investment, with institutional investors and private capital “seeking to co-invest with strong, nimble, local operatingt partners,” Caplin said.
“The market and investors mostl ybelieve it’s about operations on the ground and knowingh how to position a building in a particular submarket,” he Caplin oversaw more than $7 billion in transactiond at C&W, including ’ $307 millio n purchase of a half-stake in downtown Miami’s landmark and full ownership of the 1221 Brickell buildinyg in 2006. He was involvedd in the sale of 355 Alhambra in Corao Gablesfor $87.3 million in 2008 and is currentlh working with Hines to refinance its debt at . Caplibn is a graduate of south Miami-Dadde County’s Palmetto High School. He graduated from in 1985 witha bachelor’sx degree in finance and real estate.
Two years he left C&W’s appraisal group to launcj the company’s local investment sales operation. Caplih was part of a team in the late 1980sz that first specialized in investment sales in Duringthe mid-1990s, Steelbridge Capital had 2 million squaree feet of commercial real estate in its portfolil in seven Florida markets including Jacksonville, Naplesd and Miami. They sold much of it from 2005to 2007. Caplin’ arrival marks another period of opportunity-investment for the company, Steelbridge’as Campbell said. "We think valuations are finally starting to lookattractivre again,” Campbell said in a statement.
“Ths opportunity to buy Florida assets at significan discounts to replacement costis imminent, whilw the long-term job and demographic prospectsx for Florida and the Caribbean basijn are as strong as Jay’s leadership will be the linchpin of our