Newmark Group Inc. has a new leader for its operations in Texas. The company has hired Ran Holman as executive vice president and market leader. The longtime industry exec has left a leadership role at Cushman & Wakefield to take the statewide post.
The move is big news in the fiercely competitive real estate market in North Texas, big hubs for other global firms JLL and CBRE, which recently announced it was moving its headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas. It comes as the same day that Colliers International announced it had hired former CBRE exec Daniel Taylor to run its North Texas office.
Newmark (formerly known as Newmark Knight Frank) was once a minor player in the local market, but it has been making big moves lately, growing by 160 percent in Texas and employing nearly 500 in the state.
In January, Newmark hired a top capital markets team away from CBRE—Gary Carr, John Alvarado, and Robert Hill—and Chris Murphy of JLL. In January 2018, the firm announced a joint venture with Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith and E Smith Advisors. In the summer of that year, Newmark acquired Jackson Cooksey, a move that added 70 professionals to its Texas roster.
Cushman & Wakefield has not been immune to the industry game of musical chairs. In November 2019, Dan Harris left the firm to start a tenant rep division for Stream Realty Partners. This past March, he was joined at Stream by his former colleagues Randy Cooper, Craig Wilson, Kate Sudol, and Wills Bauer. In late October, Cribb Altman left C&W to become managing director of the tenant rep group at JLL. And just last week, office leasing veterans Trey Smith, Lauren Napper, and Ward Eastman left Cushman to join the advisory and transaction services group at CBRE.
Newmark CEO Barry Gosin said Holman’s hiring will boost the firm’s ongoing growth in the state. “Texas has long been among the country’s fastest-growing regions, and it’s a great emphasis for Newmark as we have expanded our stable of experts and strengthened our range of services in recent years,” he said in a statement. “Today, the state continues to see breakneck growth, thanks to a thriving office sector, skyrocketing demand for data centers and other industrial facilities, and its emergence as a rising life sciences hub.
“Ran brings decades of experience and a proven track record to this new role, along with a deep well of knowledge of every submarket in the state,” Gosin continued. “We are extremely grateful to have him on.”
Before heading up local operations for Cushman & Wakefield, Holman held industry posts at Hines, CBRE, Cawley Partners, and Opus West. He was named D CEO’s Commercial Real Estate Executive of the Year in 2017 and consistently is included in the Dallas 500. Holman serves on the board of the Folsom Institute at SMU’s Cox School of Business, Goodwill of Dallas, NAIOP Texas, and the Salesmanship Club of Dallas, and is a recent chair of The Real Estate Council and its foundation.
He said the industry outlook for Texas is strong. “The state encompasses a wide range of thriving markets both large and small, each with unique dynamics that require ingenuity, agility, and strong relationships, many of which I’ve come to know Newmark offers,” Holman said in a statement. “My wide range of experience in and across development, capital markets, and leasing will support the effort to strengthen and expand the platform’s presence throughout the region, and I look forward to forging a path to even greater success here in the years to come.”
