With more than four decades inside the GSA, McFadden adds frontline lease-award and administration experience.

Atlanta, GA – June 16, 2026– Partners Real Estate—a private partnership-led fully-integrated commercial real estate firm—today announced that John McFadden has joined its Federal Leasing practice as Senior Vice President. Mr. McFadden joins the team led by Charlie Johnson, Executive Vice President and Head of Federal Leasing.

“When we launched Federal Leasing, the goal was to build the deepest bench of former federal insiders in the business. ” said John O’Neill, President and Managing Partner, Southeast of Partners Real Estate. “John spent his career on the government’s side of the table, awarding and administering the kinds of leases our clients hold today. That vantage point is precisely what we set out to bring in-house for the owners we represent.”

Mr. McFadden brings more than four decades of experience at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), where he served as a Contracting Officer responsible for negotiating, awarding, and administering high-value commercial leases on behalf of the federal government. In that role he held the authority to bind the government to its lease contracts and to manage them through every stage—award, modification, renewal, and close-out—giving him a firsthand view of how federal leases are written, valued, and enforced.

Among the most significant assignments of his career, Mr. McFadden served as Contracting Officer on the IRS’s lease at the historic U.S. Post Office building in downtown Philadelphia—a six-floor space totaling roughly 680,000 sq. ft.—where he oversaw a $40 million tenant-improvement construction budget and all subsequent change orders.

Over his tenure he also led negotiation strategy sessions, built training programs, and mentored hundreds of professionals across the agency — work recognized in 2016 when he was named Mentor of the Year, an honor reflecting his standing as one of the most sought-after and valuable mentors for Lease Contracting Officers across GSA.

Mr. McFadden’s hire comes on the heels of Partners launching its Federal Leasing practice in May, naming Mr. Johnson to lead it. The practice is anchored in the firm’s rapidly expanding Atlanta hub, where Partners’ Southeast base has grown to more than 70 professionals—18 of them Equity Partners—in two years’ time.

Mr. McFadden holds a Bachelor of Science from Drexel University.