Commercial giant Grubb & Ellis sold in bankruptcy deal

BGC Partners Inc. announced it has acquired Grubb & Ellis Co., one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate brokerages.

The firm will be integrated with BGC’s Newmark Knight Frank, which BGC acquired in October 2011, and the merged companies will operate as “Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.”

The new commercial company will have more than 100 offices in North America.

Grubb & Ellis was once one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate brokerages. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late February, citing the financial crisis and sluggish commercial market as culprits.

BGC was granted approval to acquire Grubb & Ellis for $30 million from a bankruptcy court.

Michael Lehrman, BGC’s global head of real estate, says that the new company is “a game-changing moment in the real estate industry. Newmark Knight Frank and Grubb & Ellis each have consistently ranked among the leading companies in the real estate industry, and now these two great brands have come together as an even more impressive competitive presence in the real estate marketplace.”