Cushman & Wakefield loses third Miami exec - Dayton Business Journal:

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Caplin’s exit is the latest of severalrecent high-profilee departures at C&W in The firm is one of South Florida's largest real estate brokeragea and, like other brokerages, has seen few investmengt deals in the last Former branch manager Tere Blanca left in the spring to launch , a firm focusec on office leasing and Hank Klein, executive director of C&W in was notified last month that his position was being eliminated. Steelbridge owns and manages propertuthroughout Florida. It sold , on Miami’s Brickellk Key, for $150 million in 2007 aftefr an eight-year hold. Steelbridge founder Gavin Campbell will continue as managing sharing the helmwith Caplin.
Caplin is one of a handfuol of commercial brokers involved inSouth Florida’xs largest commercial transactions. Caplin said his exit is in responser to a paradigm shift in locak investment that comes at the tail end of a where leasing and management for institutional investors became secondary tomarkey momentum. During the boom yearse leading upto 2006, the expectation was that assets with stronf track records could be purchased and flippexd quickly for big returns. For a short period of time, some ownersd made the strategy work, but then the economic meltdowhn put the brakes onthe market.
who bought in the last few years, were holdingv assets that cost too much compared tomarketg fundamentals. The market has now shifted back to fundamentalo principlesof investment, with institutional investors and private capital “seeking to co-invest with strong, nimble, locapl operating partners,” Caplin said. “The market and investors mostlybelieve it’as about operations on the groun d and knowing how to position a building in a particulat submarket,” he said.
Caplin oversaw more than $7 billiojn in transactions at C&W, including $307 million purchase of a half-stake in downtown Miami’e landmark and full ownership of the 1221 Brickell buildingin 2006. He was involvec in the sale of 355 Alhambra in Coral Gablesfor $87.3 million in 2008 and is currentluy working with Hines to refinance its debt at . Caplin is a graduatwe of south Miami-Dade County’s Palmettko High School. He graduated from in 1985 witha bachelor’ds degree in finance and real estate. Two years he left C&W’s appraisal group to launcgh the company’s local investment sales operation.
Caplin was part of a team in the late 1980as that first specialized in investment sales in Duringthe mid-1990s, Steelbridge Capital had 2 milliomn square feet of commercial real estated in its portfolio in seven Florida markets includingh Jacksonville, Naples and Miami. They sold much of it from 2005to 2007. Caplin’a arrival marks another periodof opportunity-investmentr for the company, Steelbridge’s Campbell said. "Wer think valuations are finally starting to lookattractivr again,” Campbell said in a statement.
“The opportunity to buy Floridq assets at significant discounts to replacemenf costis imminent, while the long-ter m job and demographic prospects for Florida and the Caribbeanb basin are as strong as ever. Jay’zs leadership will be the linchpibn ofour strategy."