Cushman & Wakefield said Wednesday it had appointed Robert Thornburgh, SIOR, CCIM, FRICS as regional president of the Southwest Region, including Southern California, Nevada, Phoenix, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. Based in Los Angeles, Thornburgh will oversee Cushman & Wakefield’s strategic growth of the Southwest, including client service delivery, talent development and recruiting, while developing strong partnerships across the firm’s service lines.

Thornburgh reports to Victoria Malkin, president, Americas Markets for Cushman & Wakefield. “We are thrilled to welcome Robert to Cushman & Wakefield as he takes on this important leadership role,” said Malkin. “His significant experience and expertise of brokerage operations and the fundamentals of our industry combined with his service-oriented approach to clients will help propel our business forward, in the Southwest and across the Americas.”

Before joining Cushman & Wakefield, Thornburgh served as the chief executive of Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR), the world’s premier organization for industrial and office brokers with more than 4,000 members. While at the helm of SIOR, Thornburgh developed a strategic plan that improved member retention, increased membership and elevated brand recognition throughout the industry. 

“I look forward to this incredible opportunity to lead and further strengthen our deep client relationships throughout the Southwest region, helping investors and occupiers source opportunities in both established and emerging markets,” said Thornburgh. “I am also excited to work more closely and collaborate with Cushman & Wakefield’s highly respected roster of professionals in the Southwest and beyond.”

The “extend and pretend” trend of multifamily loan forbearance will lead to a wave of maturities in a year or so, according to Gray Capital. The private equity real estate company has published a new report on an emerging wave of loan maturities in the multifamily market.

“Extend and pretend is coming to an end, and as lenders are increasingly incentivized to cease these practices, opportunities to invest in distressed properties will be elevated, but at the individual asset level rather than sector-wide,” said Spencer Gray, president and CEO of Gray Capital.

Gray Capital’s new report follows its previous research on loan maturities in 2023 and seeks to explain how the lending market handled last year’s wall of loan maturities and how the blunted effects of 2023’s loan maturity wave have been pushed forward. That’s due in no small part to the loan extensions, accommodations and workouts commonly referred to as “extend and pretend.”

Based on data from CoStar and the New York Federal Reserve, Gray Capital projects a new wave of loan maturities in late 2025, early 2026.

“Multifamily-specific data from CoStar shows an October 2025 spike in loan maturities that’s 25% larger than the October 2023 surge, which suggests that some of these 2023 loans were extended, contributing to that spike in October 2025,” said Matt Bastnagel, communications and marketing director at Gray Capital.

Mike covers our Texas and Phoenix/Southwest regions. He is a veteran news reporter who spent 10 years in radio and television news, mostly in Tucson, Arizona. Following his career in the media, he spent ten years as a communications executive for a publicly traded development company. Mike is married with three boys and three Huskies.

Land development company Taylor Builders LLC has chosen Sacramento-based Capital Rivers Commercial to lead the retail side of its projects. Capital Rivers Commercial, led by CEO Greg Aguirre, said it will handle the marketing and development of retail centers in various projects, including those in Roseville, Sacramento and Dixon.

Three key projects include a 9.4-acre retail center in Roseville’s Fiddyment Ranch, a 7.6-acre site in Sacramento’s Stone Beetland project and more than 23 acres for highway and community commercial development in Dixon.

Capital Rivers is marketing these sites for potential users including grocery stores, restaurants, and healthcare providers. The partnership allows Taylor Builders to concentrate on residential, leveraging Capital Rivers’ expertise in retail projects to meet their growth objectives.

Pictured: Fiddyment Ranch Phase 3.

Arctaris Impact Investors, LLC, a Boston-based impact investment firm that supports revitalization projects in underserved communities, made a lead equity investment in Liv DTLA, a $67-million market-rate affordable housing development in the South Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The transaction marks Arctaris Impact’s first Opportunity Zone investment in Los Angeles.

Funding for the project includes Arctaris’ $13.6-million equity investment, a $34.9-million loan facilitated by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles’ Affordable Housing Initiative, and $18.1 million of equity previously raised through CrowdStreet and other impact-oriented high-net-worth individuals.

The all-studio housing project, located at 1411 S. Flower St., is being developed by Housing Diversity Corp., a Seattle-based large-scale multifamily real estate manager. Construction is 85% complete and the finished project is expected to consist of 227 units, with 40% reserved for extremely low-income and voucher-subsidized households.

On April 18, join multihousing’s leaders and dealmakers when they explore the most important topics facing the Phoenix and Scottsdale markets today. Register to attend and hear expert insights first-hand, network with the best in the industry, and sit in on discussions you won’t hear anywhere else. Connect Phoenix Multifamily & Single-Family Build-to-Rent on April 18 at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa.  

As of year-end 2023, Austin posted a strong occupancy level of approximately 96.8 percent, based on Weitzman’s review of retail market conditions. The percentage, the strongest among Texas’ major retail markets, is based on a market inventory of approximately 52.4 million square feet. 

The market’s years-long trend of limited new construction also contributed to the tight market. And even though deliveries in 2023 resulted in the highest new construction total in seven years, most new space was user-driven by concepts like grocery stores like H-E-B and power anchors like Costco. 

During calendar year 2023, new space deliveries totaled approximately 789,000 square feet in new and expanded projects with 25,000 square feet or more. The 2023 deliveries represent the highest new-space level since the market added 1.1 million square feet in 2016.

Courtesy of Sean Moynihan

Newmark Executive Vice President Sean Moynihan, right, with his wife, Angela, and son Jack.

A youth soccer coach-turned-office leasing agent is now the newly minted head of brokerage for Newmark’s Southeast region.

Sean Moynihan has been named the regional managing director and Southeast market leader for the publicly traded brokerage firm, overseeing Newmark’s offices in Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, Raleigh, Charlotte, Tampa, Orlando, Boca Raton, Miami and Jacksonville. It’s a position that has Moynihan supporting brokers’ efforts to drum up new business as commercial real estate activity increases throughout the Southeast.

“Sean has become an influential part of our organization, helping to lead Newmark’s growth in the Atlanta market and the surrounding region,” Newmark Chief Revenue Officer Lou Alvarado said in a press release.

Moynihan joined Newmark in 2003 after a career as a youth soccer coach in Buckhead and steadily rose to become executive vice president, being named head of the Atlanta office in 2019.

As the leader in one of the country’s hottest office markets, Moynihan’s role has been focused on supporting the brokerage team rather than pursuing real estate deals himself, Moynihan told Bisnow in an interview Wednesday. That role will continue but on a wider geographic scale.

“That’s the beauty of what this is,” Moynihan said. “I’m a true coach. It’s not a player/coach model.”

Moynihan said activity throughout the Southeast has been on the rise, especially in Atlanta where multifamily and industrial are hot; in Boca Raton, which has been an active office market; in Nashville; and in Raleigh, which has seen a burst of life sciences demand. The Southeast doesn’t look to slow down as more companies look to relocate to follow the growing population.

“It’s the Sun Belt, right? The cost and quality of living in the Southeast are very strong and attractive to people,” he said. “I think that’s what’s driving commercial real estate activity.”