Jon Martin serves as a Managing Director in Newmark’s Boston office, where he specializes in urban retail agency leasing and tenant representation, particularly site selection strategy and repositioning and curation of downtown mixed-use assets.
Martin has 15 years of retail and restaurant leasing experience. He is currently spearheading the leasing of more than 30 assets in downtown Boston, on behalf of landlords that include Boston Properties, Clarion, EQ Office, Gazit Horizons, Gerding Edlen, ICONIQ, Invesco, Lincoln Property Co., McWhinney, Nuveen, Oxford Properties, Pembroke, Related Beal, Rockwood, Synergy Investments and UDR.
Martin’s clients also include prominent retail brands. Most recently, he successfully represented Patagonia in a lease for a Harvard Square flagship location, which opened in January 2020. Other retail clients include digitally native brands such as Serena & Lily, Brideside and Rudsak, which opened their first Boston-area stores in 2019. Martin also represents well-known restaurant brands Barcelona Wine Bar, Bartaco, Cameron Mitchell Restaurant Group, Dig Inn, Intelligentsia, Peet’s Coffee and Quality Branded.
Over the past five years, Martin has completed some of the largest flagship retail and restaurant transactions in the Boston area, including Patina Restaurant Group’s 21,000-square-foot food hall and 14,000-square-foot Banner’s Kitchen & Tap restaurant at the Hub on Causeway; the restructuring of Niketown’s 30,000-square-foot lease at 200 Newbury Street; Capital Grille’s 13,000-square-foot restaurant at the Hynes Convention Center; Ocean Prime’s 12,000-square-foot restaurant in the Seaport District; AT&T’s 10,000-square-foot Back Bay location on Boylston Street; TD Ameritrade’s downtown flagship at 50 Post Office Square; and E*Trade’s flagship branch in Downtown Crossing.
Currently, Martin is finishing up the leasing of more than 25,000 square feet of retail space to By Chloe, Coldwell Banker, Core Power Yoga and Tatte Bakery on three levels at 399 Boylston Street in the Back Bay. In the Seaport, Martin is responsible for the lease-up of Thomson Place’s retail, a 60,000-square-foot brick-and-beam historic rehab project, highlighted by the recent opening of New England’s first One King’s Lane location and the district’s first supermarket, Trader Joe’s. In the Ink Block neighborhood of the South End, Martin represents UDR’s 600-unit luxury apartment project, where he has leased more than 35,000 square feet of retail to CVS, JPMorgan Chase, Loyal Companion, Shore Leave and Tatte Bakery.
Martin is also responsible for the Boston office’s restaurant leasing platform. In this capacity, he currently represents some of the premier local restaurant groups in the region, highlighted by COJE Management Group, owners of Yvonne’s (Downtown Crossing); Mariel (Post Office Square); Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar (Back Bay, Seaport, Washington, DC); and Ruka (Downtown Crossing). Recently, he secured Seaport production and tap room space for two of New England’s leading craft beer brands, Trillium Brewing Company (16,000 square feet) and Lord Hobo Brewing Co. (10,000 square feet). With respect to entertainment, he secured the Bowery Group’s first Boston-area location, a 15,000-square-foot, 500-plus-person capacity music venue in Harvard Square called The Sinclair. In 2019, he secured more than 21,000 square feet for Six String Grill & Stage, a venue with 1,000-person capacity located at the entrance of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
In 2007, Martin was responsible for procuring more than 30 retail bank branches on behalf of Citigroup, subsequently facilitating the sale of those branches to Webster Bank. In addition, Martin and his team represent Boston Private Bank, Charles Schwab, Eastern Bank and Fidelity Investments in New England.
Professional Affiliations
- Board of directors, Commercial Brokers Association (CBA)
- Active member, International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC); past chair, NextGen Committee
Education
Martin earned his bachelor’s degree from Babson College. A New Jersey native, he lives in Charlestown with his wife and two children.