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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowOne of the city’s most prolific commercial real estate brokers is leaving the local office of Colliers Turley Martin Tucker to join Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle.
The departure of John Huguenard is a big blow to CTMT and a coup for JLL. In the last 15 years, Huguenard has sold more than 100 million square feet of industrial and office properties in deals worth more than $3.2 billion.
His name is as synonymous with commercial real estate in Indianapolis as Bif Ward’s is with residential.
Huguenard will lead JLL’s Midwest industrial sales efforts from Chicago, not at an Indianapolis outpost the firm opened early in 2009. He’s still negotiating over whether some or all of his five team members from CTMT will join him at JLL.
"This provided me an opportunity to really start playing in the big leagues rather than being based in a second-tier market," Huguenard said. "In our business, perception is reality when you’re in a small city like Indianapolis; it’s not the same being in Chicago."
Publicly traded JLL was one of several firms courting Huguenard, who was a principal and senior vice president at privately held CTMT.
"By using John’s talents regionally and nationally, we will be enhancing our industrial capital markets presence exponentially," said Dan Ryan, Jones Lang LaSalle’s Midwest Market Director.
Jeff Henry, CTMT’s managing director, said the firm is trying to regroup and is working on a new strategy for its investment services division. He expects to have a plan in place within three weeks.
"We’re sorry to see John go," Henry said. "You always hate to lose someone of his stature."
Huguenard got his first taste of the rush of real estate deals in 1988. He was 24 and swooped in to represent Duke Realty Corp. tenant Dana Corp. in a major lease renewal at Park 100. His dad, who owned a paper manufacturer, "just about crapped" when he heard about his son’s six-figure commission, Huguenard recalled last year.
He started brokering investment deals in 1994 and added his first full-time staff member in 1997.
"John definitely understands the value of a brand and the value of focus," Jeremy Woods, senior director of industrial real estate for locally based Summit Realty Group, told IBJ for a story last year. "He’s very well-respected in the industry; you can’t help but respect someone who has carved out the type of success that he has."
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