Institutional Property Advisors Tabs Retail Ace Koury for Firm’s Northeast Team

BOSTON—This spring’s JLL and HFF Capital Markets merger has spawned little in departures of top personnel from either camp, but competitor Institutional Property Advisors is beaming about their hiring of “trailblazing” HFF agent James M. Koury, his arrival bolstering the Marcus & Millichap subsidiary’s already formidable retail brokerage acumen across New England and throughout the Northeast.

“Jim is a well-known and highly respected trailblazer in shopping center investment sales who has held key roles in the industry throughout a career that spans more than three decades,” Senior VP Scott Holmes observes in a prepared statement provided Real Reporter where the National Director of IPA Retail explains Koury will be responsible for institutional-grade retail investment sales in the Northeast in his post as Senior Managing Director. The focus will be on transactions of $20 million to $200 million and beyond, although Koury will also participate in non-institutional listings ranging from $3 million to $15 million when his contacts or skills are deemed beneficial for the client.

Whether the assignment is small, medium or large, Koury’s arrival is being deemed as a coup for IPA/Marcus & Millichap, the operation that will celebrate 50 years in 2021 a national net-leased powerhouse with regional expertise in both multifamily and retail.

“Jim’s presence in the Northeast will greatly benefit investors, enhance our national retail growth initiative and further solidify our position as an industry leader in retail shopping center investment sales,” Holmes says. Koury will be working from the firm’s offices at 100 High St. in Boston’s Financial District, that operation managed by John Horowitz housing both IPA and Marcus & Millichap professionals.

After making a calculated decision to specialize on the retail realm early in his career, a pioneering concept at the time, Koury since the mid-1980s has closed more than 30 million sf of shopping center transactions valued at over $4 billion, his voluminous book of business targeting the Northeast but also featuring nationwide portfolios processed on behalf of several premier brokerage shops. Koury’s stint at HFF was capped off with the springtime closing of Medford’s Meadow Glen Mall, an $85.7 million transaction brokered exclusively for longtime owner New England Development, a deal first unveiled by Real Reporter.

Other notable assignments Koury successfully executed for HFF included a $270 million portfolio of 18 shopping centers in Greater Boston, peddling the Shoppes at Bedford in New Hampshire at a consideration of $46 million and a $44.5 million disposition of Townline Square in Meridan CT. Prior to HFF, he was an Executive VP and partner at CBRE/New England, joining that operation following 15 years with JLL and its predecessor, Spaulding & Slye, the venerable CRE firm he began his career at in 1985. One highlight there was the $377 million harvesting of two dozen grocery-anchored shopping centers in southeastern Massachusetts, Koury’s biggest one-off listing in a career featuring a bevy of nine-figure results.

In an interview with Real Reporter, Koury says he is “excited” to make IPA his next stop, declaring it “the right place at the right time for my clients” and praising the proven track record of the firm and its cadre of seasoned brokers. “I sought to join a firm that gave me a real, strategic advantage when serving clients,” says Koury, adding that “IPA does that when I am selling a shopping center by greatly expanding my already deep list of investors with direct access to Marcus & Millichap’s legendary database of national 1031 and private sector buyers, giving me access to investors no other firm can match.”

The deep pool of prospects is complemented by his IPA’s extensive research and support services, Koury further notes, elements he says are especially important up against the evolving retail landscape where clients need real-time analysis and street-level experience in good and challenging times. A slew of new investors entering the fractious fray further mandates brokers have the tools necessary to accommodate that nascent constituency, Koury opines.

“As retail reinvents itself, institutional investors and REITS have taken a more cautious approach when acquiring retail property, giving private investors a greater market share in acquiring all types of retail . . . and that makes them an even more important group of buyers to reach,” says Koury, a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers’ New England Idea Exchange Planning Committee who also holds a Master of Science in Finance degree from Boston University.

John Horowitz

Scott Holmes

James Koury