Cushman & Wakefield To Sell New York Apartment Management Arm
A Cushman & Wakefield apartment management subsidiary is being sold, impacting at least 138 employees, mostly in New York City, according to a series of public filings.
Pinnacle City Living LLC filed more than two dozen Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices this month indicating it plans to close its facilities at apartment buildings listed at the associated addresses. The reason listed for the closure is “Sale of Business.”
Cushman & Wakefield acquired Pinnacle Property Management in 2020, bringing 169,000 units across 839 multifamily properties nationwide into its management platform.
Pinnacle City Living LLC was listed as a Cushman & Wakefield subsidiary in the Chicago-based commercial real estate services firm's most recent annual report, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February.
Cushman & Wakefield human resources partner Marleea Pickett was listed as the contact for Pinnacle in the notices, posted to the New York State Department of Labor's WARN Notice database on Nov. 6. Pickett didn't respond to a request for comment.
Cushman & Wakefield and Pinnacle declined to comment. A Cushman & Wakefield spokesperson told Bisnow after this article's initial publication that the brokerage owns a 50% stake in Pinnacle City Living and is exploring a sale of that stake.
No workers are expected to lose their jobs, a source told Bisnow.
Most of the notices show between one and three workers affected at each building. On each notice, Pinnacle says its total number of New York employees is 138 and all of said workers would be affected when the closures take place, which is slated to occur Dec. 16.
The most workers impacted at any location are the 35 at Pinnacle City Living's headquarters at 1201 Broadway. While most of the buildings are in the five boroughs, two properties each in Yonkers and Buffalo are also listed as affected by the sale.
The types of buildings range from walkups in the East Village like 220 Second Ave., which has one employee, and the 204-unit mid-rise apartment building at 280 E. 161st St. in the Bronx, which has eight.
Some of the workers impacted — including the 13 employees at 130 W. 15th St. in Manhattan — are members of Service Employees International Union, Local 32BJ, according to the filings.
Simon Davis-Cohen, a regional communications manager for SEIU 32BJ, said the union would have to be informed directly if its workers were about to lose their jobs. It has received no such notice, Davis-Cohen said in an email Wednesday.
It's unclear from the filings who is in line to buy Pinnacle City Living and the extent of the deal. Cushman owns several Pinnacle-affiliated LLCs, according to its SEC filings, but in other states where it has a significant apartment management presence, such as Texas and Georgia, there are no recent WARN notices filed for Pinnacle affiliates.
At a corporate level, Cushman & Wakefield has been working to reduce its debt load in recent years, most recently prepaying $150M of a loan set to mature in 2030. Its services business line, which includes property management, brought in $2.7B in revenue for the first nine months of the year, a 3% increase year-over-year.
UPDATE, NOV. 20, 12:55 P.M. ET: This article has been updated with clarification from a spokesperson of Cushman & Wakefield's ownership of Pinnacle.
