William C. Hanson, SIOR, President, NAI James E. Hanson
This past year, we celebrated NAI James E Hanson’s 60th anniversary as New Jersey’s leading independent full-service commercial real estate firm. Over those past six decades a lot has changed in our industry but our values of honesty, integrity and accountability have not. It has always been our mission to amass a roster of the industry’s top commercial real estate professionals, dedicated to providing our clients with unrivaled service and innovative solutions.
Over the past few years I’ve watched as mergers and consolidations swept through our industry creating large conglomerates. This will be a trend that we’ll continue to see within the marketplace, but it is one that NAI James E. Hanson will not subscribe to. While NAI Hanson continues to grow, we will remain agile to respond to our client’s needs and provide superior customer service that has become a cornerstone of our business for decades.
What has and always will differentiate us from our competition and the new wave of mega-company conglomerates, is our agility and highly personalized approach which is ingrained in superior client service and most importantly our talented, dedicated team of experts.
These talented professionals are at the core of our business and our success, of which many have been with the company for more than a decade and embrace the organization’s entrepreneurial culture and passion for client service. NAI Hanson proudly has 10 associates who have earned the prestigious SIOR designation – the most in the state of New Jersey for a commercial real estate services firm. This further demonstrates our commitment to being the most capable and experienced brokerage practitioners in our market. Additionally, our SIOR members are active within the organization, having held numerous leadership positions, both past and present.
Our employee roster has grown from 15 associates to more than 70 employees over the past 10 years including a robust and full-service Property Management Division which has doubled in size during that time and currently manages over 5 million square feet. 2015 was not only important as a benchmark in the long history of NAI Hanson, but it also serves as an apex for our continued success. This past year our associates executed 317 deals, worth over $540 million.
To recognize the exceptional professional achievements of our employees, NAI Hanson hosts its annual “Hanson Awards Dinner.” This year, like most years, our collective group of SIORs were involved in some of the biggest deals and earned recognition in other categories as well, placing them among the top of their peers. To commend their commitment to SIOR as well as to their clients, I have highlighted a summary of those accomplishments below:
Transaction of the Year Award
- NAI Hanson represented HelloFresh, an international meal kit company and E-grocer, in a lease transaction for 352,000 square feet of industrial space in Newark, New Jersey. The deal was brokered by Michael G. Walters, SIOR, and Russell J. Verducci.
MCH Sales Associate of the Year (in honor of former NAI Hanson Senior Vice President, Mildred C. Hanson)
- Michael G. Walters, SIOR
Transactions Award (most transactions)
- Andrew Somple, SIOR, with 40 transactions in 2015
Outstanding Performance Awards
- Michael G. Walters, SIOR, and Gregory James for the sale of a 224,084-square-foot retail portfolio located on Route 17 in Paramus, New Jersey
- Kenneth D. Lundberg, SIOR, Patrick H. Lennon, Russell J. Verducci and Eric Demmers for the lease of a 145,000 industrial building located at 145 Baekeland Avenue in Piscataway, New Jersey
- Kenneth D. Lundberg, SIOR, Steve Pastor and Patrick H. Lennon for the sale/leaseback of a 119,264-square-foot industrial facility located at 1595 MacArthur Boulevard in Mahwah, New Jersey
- Andrew Somple, SIOR, Walter Wolf and Gregory James for the sale of a 104,854-square-foot office building located at 50 Chestnut Ridge Road in Montvale, New Jersey
- Michael G. Walters, SIOR, Thomas A. Vetter, SIOR, Jeffery W. DeMagistris, SIOR, and Steven G. Leitner, for the sale of a 58,564-square-foot industrial facility located at 235 Murray Hill Parkway in East Rutherford, New Jersey
- Joshua Levering, SIOR, and Sigmund E. Schorr for the sale of a 18,500-square-foot retail center located at 1130 Route 22 West in Lebanon, New Jersey
- Scott K. Perkins, SIOR, and Gregory James for the sale of a 10,000-square-foot retail building located at 16th Street in Fort Lee, New Jersey
NAI Hanson has a long history of doing business in New Jersey and we are proud that so many of our employees hold designations from the leading professional office and industrial real estate association, SIOR. We remain committed to our employees and to the clients we serve and industry peers we work with and look forward to continued success and activity in 2016 as New Jersey’s leading independent full-service commercial real estate firm.
