Cushman & Wakefield celebrates 30 years in Portugal

Cushman & Wakefield, the international property consultancy of British and US origins, is celebrating its 30th anniversary in Portugal this year.

On 1 July 1991 the then consultancy Healey and Baker, which three years alter merged with the US consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, bought the commercial real estate department of estate agency George Knight which had been in Portugal since 1987 and was managed by George Knight and Eric van Leuven.
Eric van Leuven became a managing partner of Healey & Baker Portugal, with a team of four staff which essentially focused on offices and warehouses. The range of services provided grew and today the company employs almost 100 staff spread over 8 areas of activity.
Eric van Leuven says “I believe that Cushman & Wakefield greatly contributed to the significant changes in the real estate market over the past three decades”.
“We helped to develop, market, sell, value and manage many of the most emblematic real estate properties and developments in Portugal – shopping centres from the North to the South, office parks and logistics centres on the outskirts of Lisbon, as well as buildings and shops on some of the main high streets in Lisbon and Porto”.
The first big-ticket sale was closed in July 1991 with the sale of Avenida da República 26, for €2.8 million ‘contos’ (today €14 million) to bank BCP.
Since then, the consultants department of Investment has been involved in some of the most important transactions in the Portuguese market, including the sale of Quinta da Fonte (an office park in Oeiras near Lisbon) — three times! — the purchase of the Campus de Justiça, (law courts) the sale of Torre Ocidente (part of the Lisbon Colombo shopping centre and offices complex), or the sale of the entire Lagoas Park business park and the purchase of the business and the purchase of the Lisbon city parcels of prime development land occupied by the former fairground Feira Popular, among many other transactions.