Blake Okland is Vice Chairman, Head of Multifamily Investment Sales for Newmark. Acting as a unifying figure for Newmark’s multifamily offices across the country, Blake’s role is to increase collaboration and improve client services nationwide by identifying and executing strategic initiatives, business line and geographic expansion and recruiting. He also leads multifamily business development nationally as the face of the brand, maintaining relationships with large institutional clients to help the firm secure business and engage on complex national and global assignments. Blake also serves on Newmark’s US Operating Committee, and on its Global Capital Markets Board developing and monitoring Global capital flows into the Us Multifamily market and physically traveling across the world for assignments warranting face-to-face global marketing campaigns. Since leading the transaction to sell ARA to Newmark and leading the enterprise nationally since 2015, gross transaction volume has increased 100% from $12 billion to $24 billion in annual volume. He has extensive experience leading multimarket portfolios as well as multiple institutional grade individual transactions.
Prior to the formation of Newmark, Blake served as president of ARA for four years. He also led the company’s governing body, the National Executive Committee, during this period. Before his role as president of ARA, Blake served as a member of the National Executive Committee for five years and played a central key role in the firm’s acquisition by Newmark.
Additionally, while holding these company-wide positions, Blake served as a principal and partner of ARA Carolinas. He and business partner Dean Smith grew the business into the dominant multifamily brokerage in the Carolinas, transacting over $10 billion before moving to a national leadership role full-time. Blake has been with Newmark (including predecessor firm ARA) over 16 years.
Before joining ARA, Blake worked with CBRE’s Atlanta-based national multifamily investment properties team for five years. A key member, he was involved in more than $450 million in apartment brokerage transactions during his time there.
Prior to entering the brokerage industry, Blake worked as an acquisitions and dispositions analyst with Archstone-Smith Communities Trust, where he was directly involved with transactions in various stages of the marketing process totaling approximately $500 million. He also monitored acquisition opportunities in specific Southeast markets including Raleigh, Charlotte, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta.
Blake is an Executive Committee member of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC). He graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science.