Commercial real estate shake-up: JLL to buy HFF
By Natalie Kostelni
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Mar 19, 2019

Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. will acquire HFF in a $2 billion deal that will merge two large commercial real estate brokerages.

The deal will likely make JLL the second-largest commercial real estate brokerage in Tampa Bay, according to Tampa Bay Business Journal research.

HFF ranked No. 2 in Tampa Bay in the TBBJ's top commercial brokers list with $1.48 billion in sales and leases in 2017. JLL ranked No. 8 at $545 million. HFF focused exclusively on sales and financing, while JLL also handled leasing.

In addition, JLL ranked No. 1 on the top commercial property managers list with 24 million square feet in the region, including 432 acres managed for the Carillon Property Owners Association.

HFF and JLL both maintain offices in downtown Tampa and have a combined 120 local employees. Representatives of JLL in Tampa weren't immediately available to say how the deal would impact their local operations.

With the merger, JLL is seeking to increase the scale of its capital markets business to drive profits and growth. In the last 20 years, HFF has closed more than $800 billion in deals and contributed in 2018 to record revenues of $650 million.

The cash and stock transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of JLL and HFF. Mark Gibson, CEO of HFF, will join JLL as CEO of capital markets for the Americas and co-chair of its global capital markets board. Under terms of the deal, HFF shareholders will receive $24.63 in cash and 0.1505 JLL shares for each HFF share.

The closing price of JLL stock on March 18 was $163.02. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter.