The Future Of Downtown Houston

Roksan works with various public and private entities in the Houston region to further enhance its quality place for both Houstonians and visitors. This entails leading creative efforts to improve the physical appeal of the Houston region, defining and creating iconic places, and enhancing existing facilities. Her previous experience includes 11 years as executive director of Houston Parks Board, 2 years as director of the Houston Parks & Recreation Department, and 6 years as the executive director of the Hermann Park Conservancy. Prior to that, she managed numerous architectural projects throughout the US. A native of Turkey, she owns a master’s degree in architecture from Rice University and a bachelor’s in architecture and urban planning from Istanbul Technical University. She is also a life-time member of the American Institute of Architects, College of Fellows.

Barry N. Mandel is the President and Park Director of Discovery Green, a 12-acre park that serves as a public gathering space and welcomed over 11 million visitors in its first 10 years.  Discovery Green was envisioned by several committed Houston philanthropists, who saw the space as a once in a lifetime opportunity to create an urban park in the heart of downtown. In less than four years, the site that became Discovery Green was transformed from an undeveloped, concrete eyesore into a beautiful and vibrant destination adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center. Discovery Green exemplifies a successful public-private partnership between the City of Houston and Discovery Green Conservancy, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, which operates the park and produces hundreds of free events each year. As a fourth-generation Houstonian, Mr. Mandel has exhibited his passion and commitment to Downtown Houston throughout his career. Mandel resides in downtown Houston and has given his time as a Board member or volunteer with Casa de Esperanza, The NAMES Project, Houston Challenge Foundation, HPD Civilian Review Committee, Houston Food Bank, Holocaust Museum Houston, Mayor’s LGBT Advisory Board, United Way, and AIDS Foundation Houston. He is a graduate of Leadership Houston’s Class VII and American Leadership Forum’s Class XX. Currently, he serves as a Board member of Theater District Houston and Undies for Everyone as well as a Director of the Houston Downtown Redevelopment Authority.

Allen leads the project leasing team to provide consulting, marketing, merchandising and leasing services to landlords and developers. Her profound expertise covers a range of asset classes including traditional neighborhood, regional and super-regional shopping centers, mixed-use developments, lifestyle centers, and entertainment venues. Allen also provides tenant representation services and market strategy for local, regional and national retailers and restaurants looking to expand their concepts. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS: Prior to joining Transwestern in 2012, Allen worked as a senior leasing agent for Brixmor Property Group (formerly Centro Properties Group), the second largest owner of open air neighborhood and regional shopping centers in the nation. With an assigned portfolio of more than 2.5 million square feet, she correlated the marketing, negotiation, construction coordination, budgeting and overall execution of transactions with new and existing tenants. She also played an integral role in multiple redevelopment projects. Throughout her tenure she was consistently a top producer not only within the Southwest region but nationally, and she executed more than 2 million square feet of lease transactions alone. Today, Allen has built a leasing portfolio of more than 3 million square feet of existing and new developments, and, in the last 12 months has executed transactions that created over $100 million in value. Crystal Allen currently leases many of the largest, most high profile projects within the country, and is consistently requested by the company’s premier clients to represent projects. She is a top producer within the firm, is considered a leader within the retail industry and a mentor to her team members. Her clients include Brookfield, Oliver McMillan, DC Partners, LNR Partners, Patrinely Group, CDC, Xenia Lodging, Imperial Development, Skanska, 4M Investments, Woodridge Capital, Walton Street Capital and Ley/Wilson Development as well as multiple tenants including Amorino Gelato, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Star Furniture, Voicebox Karaoke, Gigi’s Cupcakes and TF Supplements. PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS/RECOGNITION: Crystal is a licensed Real Estate Broker in the states of Texas and Colorado, a member of ICSC and a member of Transwestern’s Women’s Leadership Council. In 2015 Crystal was recognized as one of Globe Street’s Top Ten Emerging Retail Leaders and has recently been named one of Real Estate Forum’s 2016 top 50 under 40. EDUCATION: Crystal graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

For thirty-two years Robert M. Eury has served as President of Central Houston, Inc., a private, nonprofit corporation, formed to lead the planning and implementation of the redevelopment of Houston’s central city area—principally downtown. Mr. Eury is also the Executive Director of the Houston Downtown Management District, a special assessment district within downtown Houston. Mr. Eury was Vice President and Director of Research Development for Rice Center prior to starting Central Houston in 1983. During his nine years with Rice Center, his research focused on land use/transportation joint development, urban services delivery, development regulation, and environmental design. Prior to joining Rice Center in 1974, Mr. Eury served as Director of Community Planning Studies for the Urban Studies Center, University of Louisville, Kentucky.

Tim Relyea is Executive Vice Chairman of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas, Inc. (C&W) and has been on the board of C&W, served on the Compensation Committee and currently serves on the Global Management Committee. Mr. Relyea is one of the nation’s top real estate professionals. His real estate career began in 1978, and since that time Mr. Relyea has complete in excess of 60 million square feet of transactions for a total aggregate rental of more than $47 billion. Mr. Relyea was one of the first employees hired by twin brothers Louis B. Cushman and John C. Cushman, III, following the formation of Cushman Realty Corporation in 1978. Located in the Houston office, he became Executive Vice President and the #1 producing broker in the 200-person firm. In 2001, Cushman Realty merged with Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., with Mr. Relyea being named Vice Chairman. Mr. Relyea has been Cushman & Wakefield’s top global office broker four times and its top overall broker on a global basis for three different years. Mr. Relyea won the “Office Leasing Broker of the Year” award from the Houston Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP) in both 1991 and 2002. He is also in the Houston (NAIOP) Hall of Fame. Apache Corporation, BHP Billiton, BG Group, Chevron, Devon Energy, Marathon Oil Company, Nabors, Hess Corporation, Citigroup, Mitsubishi, Bracewell & Giuliani , Fulbright & Jaworski, King & Spalding are just a few of the major corporations/professional firms Tim has represented.

A Houston native and born into a family of entrepreneurs, Dan Zimmerman quickly discovered his passion for design, art, hospitality, and real estate. After two years at Rice University, a football injury sent Dan to Dallas where he graduated with a degree in advertising from Southern Methodist University. Dan began his career as a development associate at Trevi Luxury Hospitality Group where he continued to explore his passion for hospitality and hone his unique perspective. A move back to his hometown of Houston led Dan to pursue a career in commercial real estate with Hankamer & Associates. Following his exploration and interest in commercial real estate, Dan became an independent commercial real estate broker. With over a decade of real estate experience and Dan’s passion for artful real estate curation, he launched NewForm Real Estate—a full-service real estate development firm specializing in the acquisition, sale, leasing and marketing of select commercial properties. At the center of the firm, Dan and his team work to develop unique real estate opportunities and build strategic relationships with lasting value. Dan pursues additional investments in areas he is passionate about including hospitality, contemporary art, technology and more.

TRANSWESTERN ROLE David and his team are currently responsible for overseeing marketing and leasing efforts for numerous office buildings within the Houston area. David directs an office portfolio that consists of 6 projects totaling approximately 8 million square feet. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS David is serving as the senior leasing agent for several large office projects and/or portfolios for numerous clients including Brookfield, Nuveen, Allianz, Shorenstein, Griffin Partners, State Farm, Claremont Property Company and LNR Partners, LLC. Notable Large Transactions Completed: BHP Billiton (Galleria) Tower Five Build To Suit - 595,000 SF BHP Billiton (Galleria) 1360 Post Oak - 586,000 SF Waste Management (multipshoole deals) - 260,000 SF Mustang Engineering – New Construction - 337,882 SF KBR - 216,099 SF Energy XXI - 171,000 SF Direct Energy – 104,348 SF Shaw Engineering – 312,564 SF PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS/RECOGNITION Transwestern Top Producer Nationally for Past 12 years A Top Producer in Houston Region 2004-2018 Transwestern Champion’s Club 9 out of 11 years HBJ Heavy Hitter Award CoStar Power Broker Award Board Member of Commercial Gateway/HAR EDUCATION David earned a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Baylor University. He is a licensed Real Estate Broker in Texas and a Certified Public Accountant (inactive status).

As Vice President, Development for Skanska, Ben manages the concept development, design, investment valuation, marketing & leasing, and delivery of new projects, most recently delivering Bank of America Tower (formerly Capitol Tower). Ben is also responsible for land acquisitions and new project opportunities. Prior to joining Skanska, Ben worked for ExxonMobil as a design manager on the campus project in north Houston and The Hanover Company as a development associate for the Boston market. Ben graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and also holds a Masters in Design Studies from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Ben is an active member of Central Houston’s Transportation Committee.

Melissa is a 20+ year veteran of the hospitality industry which she began at a Residence Inn by Marriott in Dallas where she found her love for sales. Over the years in operations and sales, she developed a passion for opening hotels and working on the pre-opening Sales & Marketing efforts to make hotels succeed. Melissa has experience working with limited service, full service and extended stay hotels within the IHG, Marriott, Hilton, Choice, and Wyndham branded hotels. Melissa evaluates, establishes, and trains consistent sales practices throughout our organization as well as supports our sales teams in creating profitable sales and revenue management strategies at each of the hotels. Her creativity, determination, and ability to think outside the box, are just some of the traits that make her a success to further grow our company.

Jason Fudin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Placemakr (formerly WhyHotel), based in Washington D.C. Placemakr is a venture-backed platform that operates at the intersection of hospitality and multifamily real estate. With its pop-up hotels, it operates furnished, transient stays out of the vacancy of newly built luxury apartments during the lease-up phase. With its hospitality living buildings, it operates assets as a mix of multifamily and hospitality on a permanent basis with the ability to flex the inventory between both uses. Prior to Placemakr, Jason was the VP of Strategic Initiatives at Vornado Realty Trust where he worked on developing innovative commercial real estate concepts for the organization. Over his career, Jason has managed commercial real estate development projects valued at over $2 billion and has worked in real estate development, acquisitions, and capital markets. He has his B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Management from McGill University and his M.S. in Finance and Real Estate from American University.

Tanya is a rare breed “native” Houstonian and a 25+ year veteran of the hospitality industry. 17 of those years in the Downtown market, Tanya has successfully “survived” the collapse of Enron, a distressed and under-developed market, two economic recessions- both regional and global….oh, and did I mention a couple of SuperBowls and Natural Disasters? Tanya and her team successfully converted a branded asset to an independent hotel in Houston’s corporate dominant market during a recession by focusing on grass roots sales efforts and cultivating long-term relationships. Our clients and guests are like our family – and we treat them as such. Her Southern Charm and Hospitality paired with her drive for results while rooted in integrity, honestly and humility has attributed to The Whitehall’s success as a market leader. We want our hotel to feel like a natural extension of Houston and we’re excited to be a part of the evolving Downtown landscape. Tanya LOVES Houston and is excited about Downtown’s Future. She is admittedly a “Bravo-holic” and enjoys winding down after a great day with a cocktail and the Housewives!

Edward has working at Magnolia Hotels as the General Manager for 2 years. Before that, he was with Starwood for 13 years. With over 30 years in the industry, he has experience working in several major markets including New York, Miami, Houston, Last Vegas, Los Angeles.

Allie Danziger is the president and founder of Integrate, a full-service communications agency specializing in public relations and social media. Don't let her 5-foot frame fool you; Allie is driven, full of passion and a completely open book (poker is not her game!). Fueled by Diet Dr. Pepper and an unwavering commitment to helping ambitious people succeed, this thriving entrepreneur started one of the city's top PR and social media agencies in 2009 and has been changing the game in Houston ever since. Integrate was founded on the idea to “integrate” any communication tactics necessary to achieve client goals by authentically connecting with target audiences where they are. Jumping into the fire in the presence of a challenge, Allie courageously goes where others won’t. In 2009, she noticed a gap in the marketplace as businesses struggled to understand social media - hence, Integrate was born; in 2012, Integrate shifted its focus to include digital marketing through Facebook advertising, staying far ahead of competitors’ focus; in 2015, Integrate led the way on blogger and influencer relations; and in 2017, the company produces stellar multimedia content to supplement its creative output. Allie remains laser- focused on innovation in order to exceed client expectations and keep employees on their toes. She won the Houston Business Journal “40 Under 40” award in 2011; was an honoree in Houston Business Journal’s first-ever “Women Who Mean Business” awards; named as a “Savvy Sister” by Houston Women’s Magazine; was dubbed one of “Houston’s ‘It’ Girls of the Year” and one of 40 “Women [Who] Basically Run Houston” by Houston Chronicle and is a member of the prestigious Entrepreneurs Organization. Allie’s passion for helping women thrive in the workplace has led her to serve as the president-elect for Dress for Success Houston's Women of Wardrobe. She is also a board member and the head of the communications committee for Plant it Forward, a local nonprofit dedicated to helping refugees live more sustainable lives through urban farming. A native Houstonian, Allie received a degree in Public Relations from the University of Texas. Post graduation, she spent two years in New York City at Quinn & Co., a real estate public relations firm where she started and led the business’ first social media department, an experience that served as a catalyst for turning her passion for social media, innovation and entrepreneurism into a business of her own. To decompress after an energizing day with her Integrate rockstars, Allie finds joy in yoga, running and cuddles with her new daughter, Milly, and pug, Waffles. Her husband, Eric, is sometimes invited too.