Donohue Addresses NYPD at Baruch College Negotiation Seminar


A police department as big as the NYPD needs a lot of space to operate – and real estate is a major part of the equation. When the expert crime-fighting organization needed a commercial real estate expert for professional development days, NYPD leaders turned to the City University of New York’s Baruch College Division of Continuing and Professional Studies (CAPS) for help.

It turned out that CUNY had just the right man for the job.

CUNY, which assigns experts to different real estate assignments for its CAPS program, reached out to IPG Real Estate for President George Donohue’s expertise. Not long after, Donohue brought his decades-long experience and expertise to CUNY to speak at a seminar for NYPD police officers and staff, teaching them the art of the commercial real estate deal.

With more than 30 years of experience in New York City real estate, Donohue thought he’d seen it all, but this was his first opportunity to work with the public sector.

“A lot of government agencies are used to repeating the same real estate negotiations and performing lease administration in the same way over and over,” said Donohue. “My father and uncle were police officers, so the opportunity to give back to the public sector – these folks who serve and protect us daily – I couldn’t pass it up.”

During the three-day seminar, Donohue and top NYPD officers in attendance reviewed and analyzed sample leases, as well as example leases from Donohue’s past experiences negotiating commercial real estate deals in New York City. Officers were set up in role-playing sessions so that they could learn from Donohue best practices for negotiating a lease, as well as what to look out for during the lease negotiation process. With his long history working in New York City commercial real estate, Donohue shared his knowledge of clauses and other items that could help the NYPD get favorable deals. The group even drafted sections of leases to mirror this process and get hands-on experience.

Donohue said, “Armed with the right knowledge, the NYPD can successfully negotiate property leases – and so can other branches of government, the private sector, business owners, even families. I’m glad CUNY reached out to IPG Real Estate because we have experts in so many areas on our team that know how to negotiate great leases for our clients.”

Whether it’s for the NYPD, or for a neighbor down the street, IPG Real Estate has experts working to help clients get the best deals in an efficient, fast, cost-effective way.