Highly regarded industry veteran becomes Principal; will lead local office’s origination of debt and joint-venture equity placements and help expand firm’s institutional-grade investment real estate sales service line throughout Bay Area

Nick Slonek, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company’s Northern California region, announced today the strategic hiring of highly regarded debt-and-equity placement specialist John Manning.

Effective immediately, Manning becomes a Principal of Avison Young based in the company’s San Francisco office with a mandate to lead the local office’s origination of debt and joint-venture equity placements. In addition, he will help grow the company’s investment real estate sales service line throughout the Bay Area and serve on the company’s U.S. capital markets team.

Manning brings 20 years of commercial real estate experience in the Bay Area to Avison Young, most recently as Managing Director of Capital Markets - Finance at JLL in San Francisco, where he founded the company’s U.S. northwest region capital markets practice and was the firm’s top debt-and-equity placement professional on the U.S. west coast for the past nine years.

“We’re thrilled to welcome John to Avison Young,” comments Slonek. “He brings a solid capital markets perspective to our burgeoning service line. With his tenure and relationships, he will be a big influence in terms of expanding our brand here in San Francisco. Furthermore, his practice will complement our existing finance teams in Washington DC, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Above all, John is the epitome of a team player and an ideal fit for Avison Young’s strong, collaborative culture.”

Slonek continues: “Given John’s deep network of finance industry and capital markets contacts, and his client-first approach to every transaction, we will be able to provide creative solutions for our clients’ debt-and-equity placement needs as well as their institutional-grade real estate investment requirements.”

During his career, Manning has completed more than $12 billion of commercial real estate originations while focusing predominantly on urban highrise residential development, institutionally owned office assets and the hospitality sector.

Prior to joining JLL, Manning was a partner in the San Francisco office of Highland Realty Capital, a leading regional real estate investment banking company formed by former executives of Buchanan Street Partners. Before moving to Highland, he was a vice-president and partner at Buchanan Street, a Newport Beach, CA-based capital markets advisory and real estate investment management firm. Manning became one of Buchanan Street’s leading originators of third-party debt-and-equity advisory services.

“John is joining our U.S. capital markets team at a pivotal time,” says John Kevill, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of U.S. Capital Markets. “We have made significant investments in the business nationally and have seen annual revenues grow significantly over the past several years. John will be an integral component of our Bay Area business – and the perfect partner to build around given his vast client base and strong market presence.”

Manning is active in the industry as a member of the Urban Land Institute, which has published some of his articles; California Mortgage Bankers Association, Bay Area Mortgage Association, NAIOP (San Francisco and Silicon Valley chapters) and the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR). In the community, he has coached 29 youth soccer teams over a 16-year period. He is also a member of the auxiliary to the St. Vincent de Paul youth and men’s clubs and sits on the San Francisco board of Self Help Africa.

“I’m excited and invigorated to join Avison Young as a Principal of the firm,” says Manning. “Avison Young’s global reach and partnership structure marry the best features of my past experiences. I built JLL’s capital markets finance practice in Northern California from the ground up and I’m excited to have the opportunity to help expand the service line here at Avison Young. I’m also looking forward to working again with John Kevill and many of my other former and new colleagues across the country and the globe as we help our clients achieve their debt-and-equity placement and real estate investment goals.”

Manning holds a Master of Science degree in finance, with an emphasis on real estate, from Golden Gate University and a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce from Santa Clara University.

Avison Young is the world’s fastest-growing commercial real estate services firm. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its Principals. Founded in 1978, with legacies dating back more than 200 years, the company comprises approximately 5,000 real estate professionals in 120 offices in 20 countries. The firm’s experts provide value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management and financing services to clients across the office, retail, industrial, multi-family and hospitality sectors.