Q&A
Questions about Diana Butros' appointment as Cushman and Wakefield account manager
1:23:22
·
4 min
Council Member Restler questions the appointment of Diana Butros as the new account manager for Cushman and Wakefield, replacing Robert Gigglio. Commissioner Molina admits limited knowledge of the situation due to his recent appointment.
- Restler highlights Butros' lack of experience in office leasing compared to her predecessor
- Molina states he's unaware of any conversations DCAS had about selecting the new account manager
- Restler expresses frustration at the lack of institutional knowledge present at the hearing due to recent leadership changes
Lincoln Restler
1:23:22
Okay.
1:23:25
Alright.
1:23:25
I'll I'll keep moving.
1:23:27
I think that we'll ship gears to Dynabutra I think there remain a lot of open questions.
1:23:32
I hope you'll seriously consider the recommendations from my colleagues to pull back and reconsider this lease agreement.
1:23:42
Now I'd like to shift to questions about Diana Butros.
1:23:47
In 2017, Decast executed a 3 year contract with an optional 2 year extension with Cushman and Wakefield to provide tenant representative services.
1:23:56
In its proposal, Cushman specified that Robert Gigglio would be serving as the account manager.
1:24:01
Mister Gigglio has decades of experience in commercial real estate, working with city agencies and other large public and private clients such as AECOM, Aetna, UNICEF, JPMorgan, and others in leasing office space.
1:24:13
Toward the end of 2022, Mister Giglio announced he would be retiring.
1:24:17
To the best of your knowledge, did Decats have conversations with Cushman Wakefield about who the new account manager would be?
Louis Molina
1:24:25
To the best of my knowledge to date, I'm not aware of any conversations that DeCast had on selecting who the account managers of the team should be.
Lincoln Restler
1:24:36
I imagine that neither you nor executive deputy commissioner Overton can respond to many of these questions since you've only been in these roles respectively for a matter of days.
1:24:44
But did anyone in the mayor's office weigh in to the best of your knowledge about who the new account rep would be at Cushman and Wakefield
Louis Molina
1:24:50
to the best in my knowledge?
1:24:51
No.
1:24:52
Okay.
Lincoln Restler
1:24:54
Just wanna underscore again why it's so frustrating that we don't have deputy commissioner Hamilton here or somebody who's been in these jobs for more than 2 months, 3 months to testify to answer questions about what's transpired that's so concerning.
1:25:08
Could you explain the difference for me between office leasing and retail leasing?
Louis Molina
1:25:16
As in retail and like a commercial store?
1:25:19
Or
Lincoln Restler
1:25:19
It's a common phrase in commercial real estate retail leasing versus office leasing.
1:25:23
These are
Louis Molina
1:25:24
I mean, we rent office space and we lease office space as a customer to some private landlords where we're the tenant.
1:25:33
And then there are retail spaces, I would imagine in things like maybe a mall or something like that that could be considered retail spaces.
Lincoln Restler
1:25:41
So as the New York Times has noted, retail leasing and office leasing are 2 distinct, unquote, them.
1:25:46
Retail leasing and office leasing are 2 distinct areas of expertise, and it is unusual for a broker who has spent decades working in 1 to move over to manage a large account in the other.
1:25:57
Discrete areas within commercial leasing, retail leasing, office leasing, totally different areas of expertise.
1:26:02
Diana Butros has spent her career in retail leasing.
1:26:04
Starbucks and Chipotle's of the world.
1:26:06
She has zero experience with office leasing.
1:26:09
Could you explain to me why?
1:26:11
Diana Butros is qualified to be the account manager for this multimillion dollar account with Cushman Wakefield.
1:26:17
Did Cushman and Wakefield submit information to Decast on her qualifications?
1:26:20
And if so, could you provide them to us?
Louis Molina
1:26:23
If if Cushman and Wakefield submitted any such documentation regarding miss Blue Cross, I I have no objection of sharing that with you.
1:26:31
I do not think, in my opinion, that it's a big leap.
1:26:35
But again, it is Cushman and Wakefield's decision as to what staff members are going to be working on the city's account.
Lincoln Restler
1:26:43
We've received information from multiple people within decast, the decast officials, including deputy commissioner Hamilton, requested miss Butros be the account manager on the Cushman and Wakefield account.
1:26:54
Can you confirm or deny?
Louis Molina
1:26:56
To to date, I have not seen any of that.
Lincoln Restler
1:26:57
Have you had that conversation with Mister Hamilton?
1:26:59
Such communication.
1:27:00
Have you ever discussed it with Mister Hamilton?
Louis Molina
1:27:02
I have not.
Lincoln Restler
1:27:02
Okay.
1:27:03
So you don't know.
1:27:04
Okay.
Louis Molina
1:27:05
I know that I've not seen any documentation that indicates that DCA staff asked for any particular person to be selected to lead the account.
Lincoln Restler
1:27:12
It's unusual for someone with zero relevant experience to be selected by Cushman Wakefield to run such a significant account if DeCast didn't request it.
1:27:21
So, which is what we've been advised.
1:27:23
Do you know, did DeCast did the conflicts of the DeCast conflicts of interest officer or general counsel weighing in on any conflicts given miss Boutros' preexisting relationship with Mister Hamilton and Ingrid Lewis Martin prior to her appointment to this role.
Louis Molina
1:27:39
Not that I've been made aware of today.
Lincoln Restler
1:27:41
You are aware of the significant donations that she's made to the mayor's campaigns over the years.
1:27:46
I'm not.
1:27:47
You haven't read that in the reporting?
Louis Molina
1:27:49
I haven't called reading that in reporting, and I didn't look it up.
