Cushman & Wakefield, Healey & Bakers US parent, is on the verge of joining Goldman Sachs real estate internet venture.
Terms of the deal are not known, but it is believed C&W is looking at taking a stake. H&B staff are expected to be briefed during the week beginning 3 July.
Goldman Sachs plans have alarmed US brokers, who believe they will be “disintermediated” by the web service, which aims to carry out transactions of up to £32m.The investment bank has put $40m into the project so far.
The bank, which itself owns 4.18m sq m (45m sq ft) of space in the US, is piloting the project in Dallas, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, before taking it to the rest of the country. The site, called TenantCity.com, will facilitate principal-to-principal transactions.
Peter Pike, the real estate e-business guru and organiser of the PikeNet conference, said: “It would be a good move for C&W if they did link up with Goldman Sachs. They have not been involved in any of the other high-profile deals.”
Linking with the service would provide C&W with a head start into e-commerce. The large quoted US real estate consulting firms have already begun e-business initiatives.
CB Richard Ellis, Jones Lang LaSalle and Trammell Crow have teamed up to form Octane, to develop e-commerce projects and take advantage of the groups $5bn in shared FM buying power.
And several US property companies and brokers have formed the £135m Project Constellation, to incubate and develop e-businesses.
Neither C&W in the US or H&B in the UK were available for comment.
EGi News 23/06/00
