Hoffman strikes back at JLL over appeal on National Science Foundation lease deal

His role might have been as a consultant, but JLL Senior Vice President Art Turowski essentially performed all the duties of a real estate salesman when he helped the developers of the Hoffman Town Center in Alexandria land the National Science Foundation as an anchor tenant.

With $6.6 million in commissions on the line, that's the argument Hoffman Family LLC made to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Alexandria, where JLL has appealed a lower court's ruling that it should not receive any money for its role in the deal because Turowski was not a licensed real estate salesman.

Hoffman, represented by McGuire Woods attorneys John Adams, Brian Schmalzbach and Jodie Hermann, notes that other members of the JLL team had obtained licenses to practice in Virginia but that Turowski, who joined the brokerage after retiring from the General Services Administration in 2007, never did. The problem, it claims, is that Turowski then signed off on several documents and acted as the authorized representative for Hoffman.

A side note in the brief is that Turowski also acted as Hoffman's representative in competing for another big federal lease, this one with the Fish & Wildlife Service, which ultimately decided to go to Vornado's Skyline campus instead. Hoffman claims Turowski submitted a form to the GSA stating JLL was entitled to a 1 percent commission, rather than the 2 percent JLL claims it was due from Hoffman.

Hoffman filed its response Monday to an argument JLL made in September that Turowski did not need to be licensed because he was acting as a consultant to a team led by Joseph Brennan, managing director of JLL's government investor services group. Turowski was a salaried employee, JLL argued, and was not part of the team that was going to earn a commission for its work.

Hoffman successfully competed for the government lease to build a new, 660,848-square-foot headquarters for the NSF at 2401 Eisenhower Ave. in Hoffman Town Center. The General Services Administration signed off on the lease in June 2013, and a dispute between Hoffman and Brennan arose less than two weeks later. JLL filed its suit in August 2013.

Daniel J. Sernovitz covers commercial real estate.