JLL announced that Adam Karafiol has joined its New Jersey brokerage platform as the firm continues to grow its agency practice in the region, according to a Monday announcement. Karafiol will serve as an executive vice president based in JLL’s Rutherford office.
A veteran commercial leasing broker with more than 20 years of experience, Karafiol joins JLL from leading local real estate investment and property services firm, Onyx Equities, where he served as senior vice president of leasing for nearly a decade. Before that, he worked with multiple New York City based real estate owners and ran his own commercial real estate services firm.
“Adam has a long track record of leasing some of the best assets in the market,” Tim Greiner, broker lead for JLL’s New Jersey brokerage business said. “He will leverage the deep tenant relationships he has developed at Onyx in a way that will help JLL continue its strategic growth in the region, with a focus on agency business in the Bergen County market.”
Karafiol represented Onyx in the most significant deals the company ever completed in New Jersey, where it owns and operates over $2 billion worth of office, industrial, retail and residential space. Among his career highlights, he led office leasing at One, Two and Four Gateway Center, the 1.6-million-square-feet property in Newark that Onyx owns as part of a joint venture and oversaw leasing of Onyx’s 10-million-square-feet office portfolio throughout New Jersey state and tri-state area.
“Adam has been a tremendous asset to Onyx Equities as the company has grown its footprint across the northeast. His move to JLL only strengthens our relationship with the JLL team and Adam. We wish him well in this latest career chapter and are confident that Onyx and Adam will continue to do great things together,” John Saraceno, managing principal and co-founder of Onyx Equities said.
Karafiol began his real estate career as a broker with Newmark representing tenants and landlords in Manhattan before joining Macklowe Properties, representing the company’s interests in a 12-million-square-feet portfolio of office and retail space in New York City’s Plaza District. He later joined Cohen Brothers Realty and focused on leasing transactions within the company’s seven-million-square-feet New York City and Westchester portfolio, before setting up his own real estate services firm, Heath West Realty Corp. in New York and New Jersey.
“I have collaborated with JLL on many projects over the years and I am excited to now align with the firm as it continues to cement its reputation as a market leader in the region,” Karafiol said. “The JLL brand represents a powerful value proposition at a time of uncertainty and opportunity for tenants in the market today and I look forward to leveraging their platform to achieving client goals.”
