Cushman & Wakefield celebrates this week 30 years of activity in Portugal.
On July 1st, 1991, a UK property firm, Healey & Baker (who years later would merge with Cushman & Wakefield), acquired the commercial real estate department of George Knight Lda, who was already present in Portugal since 1987 and was managed by George Knight and Eric van Leuven.
Eric van Leuven became managing partner of Healey & Baker Portugal, with a team of 5 employees, essentially dedicated to the disposal and acquisition of office and warehouse space. The range of services has widened and the company now has almost 100 employees who specialize in 8 areas of property activity.
Eric van Leuven, Head of Portugal, said: "I think that Cushman & Wakefield had some influence on the enormous changes in the real estate market over the last quarter century. We helped design, market, evaluate and manage many of the most iconic real estate developments in the country - shopping centres north to south, offices and logistics parks around Lisbon, buildings and retail units in the main streets of Lisbon and Porto".
The first major consulting transaction, even in July 1991, was the acquisition of the Avenue da Republica 26 building, for 2.8 billion escudos (14 million euros), by BCP.