Richard F. Herlihy (left) is the first member of the new Investment Sales Division at Richard Barry Joyce & Partners. At right is company President Robert B. Richards Jr., who hired Herlihy.

When it comes to commercial real estate sales, Richards Barry Joyce & Partners is now officially in the field.

“We’re playing to win,” President Robert B. Richards Jr. told Banker & Tradesman last week after hiring Richard F. Herlihy as the first member of its Investment Sales Division. The action was one of two notable personnel moves occurring in the Hub’s real estate sales community last week, with Grubb & Ellis broker Richard E. Putprush joining the Financial Services Group at Cushman & Wakefield, the same operation Herlihy had worked with for the past eight years.

“I feel honored to have been asked to join the team,” Putprush said last week, noting that Cushman & Wakefield has emerged as the region’s leading investment sales operation in the new millennium, already surpassing $2 billion in deal volume for the year. Putprush “is a natural fit,” said Cushman & Wakefield of Massachusetts President Robert E. Griffin Jr., whose career previously intersected with Putprush at Coldwell Banker in the mid-1980s when they joined forces to sell a small warehouse building in Billerica.

“It shows that the real estate world here isn’t only small, it’s very round as well,” said Putprush, who also worked with key Cushman & Wakefield investment sales specialists Edward C. Maher Jr. and Marci Griffith Loeber while all were at Coldwell Banker. “A lot has happened in between,” said Putprush. Prior to his stint at Grubb & Ellis, Putprush had handled troubled real estate assets following the recession of the early 1990s and spent time managing properties nationally for Copley Real Estate Advisors. Putprush then went to Codman Co. briefly before joining Grubb & Ellis in 2000.

While praising his former colleagues, Putprush said he wanted to join Cushman & Wakefield because of the firm’s focus on investment sales. “It’s a place where I think I can apply my skills and experience,” he explained, while the personal connection made the leap even easier. “How often do you get a chance to work with your friends?” he said. “There’s a lot of support and a real team attitude here.”

Griffin was equally impressed with the firm’s latest arrival. “We think he’s going to do great for us,” said Griffin, citing Putprush’s diverse career path, one that provided him with a breadth of experience understanding lease transactions and managing properties. “Rick has an extensive and well-rounded background that serves him well in investment sales,” said Griffin “It’s an excellent match.”

On the investment sales front, Putprush has handled a variety of product types in transactions ranging from $1 million up to $123 million. The largest of those was the sale of 501 Boylston St. in Boston’s Back Bay, earning Putprush and GVA Thompson Doyle Hennessey & Stevens brokers Donald Hause and John F. Hennessey 2002 Boston investment sale of the year honors from the Commercial Brokers Association.

‘Really Refreshing’

Across town at Exchange Place, Herlihy is joining RBJ&P in the same building he began his Hub real estate career in while working for Leggat McCall Werner in 1986. Heading into its fourth year in business, RBJ&P decided to enact its long-held plan to start an Investment Sales Group, said Richards, explaining that clients were increasingly clamoring for the burgeoning firm to offer such capabilities.

“It’s not about competing with other companies or growing our revenues; it’s about being able to offer our clients something that wasn’t available in the marketplace,” said Richards, maintaining that his firm’s compensation setup will encourage greater cooperation between such disciplines as leasing, research and investment sales. As sales becomes an increasing piece of a client’s real estate strategy, RBJ&P felt it wanted to firm up its expertise by forming a dedicated investment group, said Richards.

Others spoken with were not overly surprised at the move, including William F. McCall Jr. of McCall & Almy. “I think it makes sense for them,” he said of RBJ&P’s leap into the crowded investment arena. “It’s a profitable and a hot end of the market right now.”

Richards concurred that Massachusetts is experiencing an unusual amount of sales activity in 2004, but insisted that the firm is not “market timing” by starting the division in that super-charged atmosphere. The combination of Herlihy being available and RBJ&P’s own progression led to the launch now, said Richards, whose firm has always derived a portion of its revenues from one-off real estate sales generated by client relationships.

For his part, Herlihy also cited RBJ&P’s cooperative corporate environment as a factor in his joining the firm. “The paths all led to [RBJ&P],” he said, adding that early indications are it was the right decision. “It’s very evident in the culture, and it was very evident in the way I was welcomed to the firm,” he said. While his focus at Cushman & Wakefield was on middle market sales of between $10 million and $40 million, Herlihy predicted RBJ&P will compete for assets substantially larger than that range, and said he believes the firm’s platform will prove popular. “It’s really refreshing,” he said. “It’s a model that other people will ultimately adopt because it is totally client-driven.”