Savills Studley Acquires RP Capital

Savills Studley, a leading global commercial real estate services firm, announced today that it has acquired the advisory and investment firm RP Capital, headed by industry veterans Michael Rotchford and David Heller. In addition, Paul Leibowitz and David Krantz, formerly of CBRE, are also joining Savills Studley in its New York City headquarters office to help form a new capital markets group, with current Executive Managing Director Woody Heller (no relation). The addition of these industry veterans will substantially expand and strengthen Savills Studley’s capital markets capabilities.

Michael Rotchford and Woody Heller together will co-lead and expand the firm’s capital markets platform in New York City and the surrounding Tri-State region. Savills Studley’s Capital Markets Group will offer a full complement of integrated capital market services including traditional investment sales; debt and equity capital raises; structured transactions; advisory assignments; and securities transactions. The group will handle all commercial asset types.

“Capital markets is an important part of Savills’ business globally,” said Jeremy Helsby, CEO of Savills. “New York is a key component of helping Savills secure global capital flows for the benefit of our global clients.”

“Michael Rotchford, Woody Heller, Paul Leibowitz, David Krantz and David Heller will help us deliver best in class results for our clients” said Michael Colacino, President of Savills Studley. “We believe that providing an integrated capital markets capability answers our clients’ demands for optimal unbiased solutions across the capital markets spectrum.”

Woody Heller added: “Rotchford, Leibowitz, Krantz and Heller are all accomplished professionals in the capital markets practice, and I am delighted to have them as my new partners.”

Michael Rotchford noted: “Savills enjoys a prominent place in the global real estate capital markets and Savills Studley is the premier firm representing corporations in the US. I’m excited to help build this new group with my partner Woody Heller.”

Rotchford boasts more than 30 years of commercial real estate experience specializing in financing and sale assignments for large institutional and corporate clients.

Michael Rotchford, Woody Heller and Paul Leibowitz have each won REBNY’s “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year” Award. In 2011, Michael won the award for acting as advisor to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey on the World Trade Center development. In 2007, Woody Heller won for the sale of the New York Law School Development Site in Tribeca, a transaction that closed in 2006. Mr. Heller also received this distinction in 2004 for the sale of McGraw Hill’s 45% C-Corp Interest in 1221 Avenue of the Americas. In 2014, Paul was part of the team honored for introducing Greenland Holdings, a China-based firm, into an investment partnership with Forest City Ratner at Brooklyn’s Pacific Park.

Michael was also awarded REBNY’s 2009 Edward S. Gordon Memorial Award for the “Most Ingenious Real Estate Financing” for the New York Times Headquarters at 620 Eighth Avenue and the 2015 “Most Ingenious Retail Deal of the Year” for the Bottega Veneta lease at 740 Madison Avenue.

Prior to founding RP Capital, Michael Rotchford served as Executive Vice President at Cushman & Wakefield and President of Cushman & Wakefield Securities, Inc., where he was responsible for the firm’s investment banking activities. Prior to that, he was a partner in The Saratoga Group, an investment-banking boutique that specialized in structured financing for corporate and real estate clients. He also served for over 10 years in investment banking positions at J.P. Morgan, Dean Witter Reynolds and Merrill Lynch.

Prior to joining RP Capital, David Heller served as Senior Vice President and head of the office platform for CBRE’s Investment Properties Institutional Group in New York City. Before that, Heller began his career with Cushman & Wakefield, working directly with Michael Rotchford in the firm’s Corporate Finance & Investment Banking Group.

Paul Leibowitz spent 20 years at CBRE, serving 14 years in the Investment Properties Group. As Executive Vice President, he represented owners in disposing or monetizing their real estate and was involved in more than $30 billion of transactions, ranging from office, residential, retail and development sites for clients comprising institutions to family trusts. In recent years, he was tapped to lead a team within the group that focused on multifamily, residential conversions, and development sites, achieving leading market share for brokered multifamily transactions over $50 million in 2014 and 2016 and leading market share for development sites over $50 million over the past three years.

David Krantz has built a 15-year career in real estate and most recently served as Senior Vice President in CBRE’s Investment Properties Group where he was involved in more than $2 billion of transactions representing both institutional and non-institutional clients. Prior to that, he spent 10 years at The Praedium Group, an institutional fund manager, where he was responsible for the acquisition, asset management and disposition of the firm’s New York City portfolios. During his tenure at Praedium, David worked on the acquisition, financing, and disposition of over $5 billion in transactions comprising nearly 20,000 fair market and rent regulated apartments including the conversions of existing rentals to condo and ground-up development.

The acquisition and new hires comes closely on the heels of Savills Studley’s significant expansion of its North American operations, highlighted by the establishment of several new offices across the U.S. and the opening of the company’s first office in Canada, as well as the acquisition of several key new hires and services lines across the country.