Markman reels in fight deals for clients big and small.

Sitting in his office, Cushman & Wakefield broker, Glenn Markman, didn't hesitate to reveal his philosophical side.

"A fisherman lives down in Costa Rica and all he does is relax on the beach and enjoy the beauty and fish," Markman said. "He's a good fisherman, though, and someone notices how much he catches and says to him to him, 'You know, you should really make something of that.' So the fisherman does, he gets boats and hires other fishermen and builds a big successful business and makes lots of money ... just so that he can have time to relax on the beach and enjoy the beauty and fish."

In addition to expressing the sublimity of the simple life, Markman said the fable represents to him an interesting question of what success really means. The 20-year veteran of brokerage, who thrives in part off of repeat business with a stable of long-term clients, has been careful not to trade what he really enjoys about brokering for a mode of deal making concerned principally with churning out as many transactions as possible simply for the sake of conforming to some growth-hungry ideal.

From some perspectives, commercial brokerage could be considered something of a cut-and-dried affair that encourages the worship of such sterile metrics as growth. Deals are measured in square feet, in price per foot, in the number of years on a lease. Brokers, by the number of deals they complete, the size of the deals, and maybe also the prestige and importance of the clients for whom the deals are done.

Markman has fashioned himself as a broker more absorbed in cultivating that sense of magic in a lease that results from finding a tenant the perfect space--one that will not only help it thrive as it is, but perhaps initiate also its metamorphosis into something better. Markman helped a large Park Avenue financial firm--who he couldn't name because of confidentiality agreements--effect this kind of change recently by convincing it to move to the vastly different Times Square market. While Times Square's status as a strong class A midtown office submarket is already well established, the move for this firm nonetheless was the real estate equivalent of its executives deciding suddenly to sport orange Mohawks. It wound up completely reinvigorating the firm's business however and inspired it to transition from its staid and conservative past to a firm at the cutting edge of its industry.

"This was a very prestigious, high end company that, knowing their history of the type of properties it tenanted, would not be expected at all to move into a modern type of building in Times Square," Markman said. "But that's my job, to really think about what's good for a firm's business, what space is going to help it thrive in the 21st Century, to give them the real estate that's going to change them for the better. This firm's business has changed and this building has helped it become a much faster company, I think the space has helped energize them."

Uncommon for a seasoned midtown and downtown broker, Markman also has been active in brokering transactions in downtown Brooklyn--including the 100,000 s/f deal for the United States Secret Service at Renaissance Plaza--a neighborhood that is regarded as far more of an unknown frontier for quality office space and is consequently far more likely to inspire trepidation from tenants than Times Square. As the Brooklyn native says with just the slightest remnant of an accent, a major firm's relocation to Brooklyn requires them to think "outta 'da box." But then for Markman, that's what the business is all about.

"Brooklyn is this ultra cool place to live and is among the best areas in the city for its arts and culture, it's not going to be long before it becomes one of the hottest office districts, too," Markman said. "What I really do in large part is act as an advisor for companies, I put myself in the CEO's shoes and take into account their needs and my knowledge of the market, and my vision of where it's going, and give them good advice on real estate decisions. It's not just finding the enough square feet for the right price."

A testament to the caliber of Markman's work and the satisfaction of his clients is the amount of long term relationships he has forged throughout his years as a broker, first at Grubb & Ellis and now for nearly four years at C&W. Markman recently completed two 17,000 s/f deals for the Belgian and Spanish missions to the UN, relocating them from 823 UN Plaza to 1 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. It was Markman who brought both missions to 823 UN Plaza in the first place, something of which he is immensely proud. While they are modest tidbits for a broker who brought the New York City Housing Authority to 90 Church Street in a 460,000 s/f deal seven years ago, the way Markman gushes about them, they must represent a highlight in his career.

"These are institutions with the absolute highest integrity," Markman said. "And to work with them means that they believe you possess an equal amount of integrity and that's one of the biggest compliments to me I can imagine."

Hard to miss on the wall of Markman's office is a large abstract painting. Its background is a swirl of bright colors that transition from dark oily blue in the upper reaches of the canvas to yellow green towards the bottom. A ghostly water stained image that looks something like a purplish translucent flower sits in the center. The petals of the flower seem to tuck into one another hypnotically, their prominent swirling fringes intersecting and curving back. To Markman, who commissioned the work from a Brooklyn artist his family is friends with, the painting expresses themes of change but also of coming full circle.

"I feel like in a lot of ways my life right now has come full circle," Markman said.

An avid basketball player throughout his childhood and teenage years, Markman, who played point guard, says that he daily finds parallels between the game and his life as a broker. For any good point guard, he says vision is key which, transfered to the world of brokering, means having a keen awareness of every party in a deal.

"As the broker you're the dealmaker, you have to know what everyone is thinking and doing and you have to link them up to make a deal happen," Markman said. "I feel like I'm playing basketball a lot of the time, I'm running up the court, dishing the ball to the guy who's open, I'm keeping aware of everything that is going on."

Markman's love of the game came full circle when he brainstormed the idea for an NBA retail store on 52nd and Fifth Avenue, a deal that he went on to broker as well.

"It's probably the deal that I'm most proud of," Markman said.

Glen Markman, Executive director Cushman & Wakefield