Delivering the retail goods. (Profile of the week: David Gialanella, Executive V.P. of Retail Cushman & Wakefield).

In addition to all of its recent mergers and partnership agreements Cushman & Wakefield is expanding its client base in another important way -- by establishing a U.S. retail brokerage division under the direction of David Gialanella, a 20-year veteran of the firm. Although the technical and communications aspects of the enterprise are still being worked out, what Cushman & Wakefield hopes to achieve in the next few years is significant retail presence in all major U.S. urban centers. Last year's merger with London-based Healey & Banker has provided it with a large base of European retailers and Gialanella hopes to bring many of them to New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

"We don't need to be everywhere," he explains. "We are focused on urban and major suburban markets. What we are not is a shopping center leasing company."

As the best example of the kind of deals Cushman & Wakefield is looking for, Gialanella Cites last year's H&M flagship lease in New York, which won the Real Estate Board's Retail Deal of the Year award.

"We did a few retail leases here and there but never in an organized effort," Gialanella says. "What prompted us to put a focus on retail was our merger with Healey & Baker. In Europe they are a very strong retail presence, so it presented us with an opportunity to take advantage of their European clientele."

Gialanella was chosen to lead the division because of his extensive experience in corporate management, as well as his involvement in most of Cushman & Wakefield's international committees. A former consulting specialist, he compares retail real estate to a major corporate strategy -- location, density, and size of your stores can make you or break you, he claims.

"During my career I sold a lot, but I've never been a broker. Before I got here my job was pretty much dealing with CEOs and CFO's," he explains. "And retail real estate, when you understand how it works, is very much about business startegy. So it really brings me back to my previous career."

Before coming to cushman & Wakefield 19 years ago, Gialanella worked for a number of Washington-based consulting firms, during which time he witnessed not only corporate restructuring, but the reorganization of the White House itself. His understanding of corporate infrastructure has helped him take on many different roles at the real estte firm, including that of the executive vice president of services, and he is often credited with a keen ability to recognize talent.

"I'm not a retail guy, but I know how to build a business," he notes. "And when you know everyone at the company really well, when you trust them, it really helps in an undertaking like that. We know what each of us can and cannot do."

At the moment, the firm's New York retail office numbers only 12 people, but according toGialanella the initiative will be global in reach and employ a significant number of professionals. Cushman & Wakefield has already appointed communications contacts in New York and London to fine-tune the referral process between the European and American brokers.

"I'd say we're always looking for talented individuals, but right now we have a very strong team," Gialanella says. "Hiring in New York is not an emphasis. My emphasis in the near-term is to build a strong brokerage division in Southern California and create an infrastructure for day-to-day business with our European operations. We are bringing Cushman & Wakefield and Healey & Baker much closer together."

When asked whether he is concerned about conditions in the retail market at the moment, Gialanella says that the current state of economy is almost beside the point.

"When you are a secure corporation, the economic cycle at any one point in time does not change your overall strategy," he says. "We've been planning this for the past two yars and we are in this for the long term. Retail is a business that's from a strategic and synergetic perspective makes sense for us."

Besides, he feels that the troubles of retailers like Toy'R'Us have been overestimated. "Toys'R'Us has 1,900 stores nationwide and it's closing about 3% of them. What we are seeing is a strategic fine-tuning in a slow economy, not an exodus."