The Future of the Gold Coast

Philip Markowitz is extensively involved representing a variety of clients with their commercial real-estate developments and investments. Specifically, as a partner in Saiber’s real-estate transactions group, Philip serves as primary counsel to developers of mixed-use and multi-family properties throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Philip also assists retail developers in the East Coast, from New York to Florida. In addition, he actively represents hotel property owners with their many legal needs. Other asset classes, especially industrial, form of a large part of Philip’s practice and experience. He is adept at representing landlords – whether institutional clients or privately-held companies – with their many leasing needs, from complicated shopping-center leases with percentage rent, to warehouse-space leases for premises in excess of 300,000 square feet. Many of these transactions require partnership and corporate structuring and documentation, and Philip and his team are also thoroughly engaged in those aspects of these various matters.

Mr. Altman is an entrepreneur and real estate investor with experience in identifying, buying and selling real estate. As a founder and Managing Member of KABR, he is instrumental in fundraising, structuring JV partnerships, sourcing and acquiring real property and debt. To date, Adam has participated in transactions totaling approximately four million square feet of commercial properties, as well as thousands of residential units, hotels and new development land with over 3000 units of entitlements. Prior to joining KABR, he focused on acquisition, development, management and disposition of real estate for a multi-billion dollar healthcare company.

Glenn Beyer has more than 21 years’ experience representing owners, developers and tenants in Central and Northern New Jersey. As a Senior Managing Director at RKF, he overseas day-to-day operations of the firm’s New Jersey office and business development in the region. On New Jersey’s Gold Coast in Hoboken, Glenn has recently leased in excess of 70,000 SF of retail space at Maxwell Place on the Hudson and Hudson Tea on behalf of Toll Brothers City Living. In addition to his leasing work in Hoboken, Glenn has leased more than 44,000 SF of retail and restaurant space in Jersey City in the past 16 months. Recent transactions include fully leasing The Morgan Ground Floor retail space in the Powerhouse Arts District, securing notable restaurateur Ruths’ Chris Steakhouse in Newport, and bringing over Ample Hills Creamery from Brooklyn for its first New Jersey store in Harborside. Among Glenn’s current retail clients are Chipotle, PNC Bank, Lands’ End, Five Guys Burger and Fries, Edge Fitness, Bishops Salon and Visionworks. Under his leadership, Chipotle has been able to secure 12 high-profile locations in New Jersey for its restaurants, and Lands’ End has initiated its New Jersey store roll out with two recently leased sites. Glenn earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and Physical Geography from Kutztown University and has been an active member of ICSC for more than 20 years.

David DeMatteis joined Cushman & Wakefield in January 2001. As a leading agency broker in New Jersey, David is currently the point person on such high-profile leasing assignments such as 10 Exchange Place, Jersey City; 3 Second Street, Jersey City; 30 Montgomery Street, Jersey City; and 15 East Midland Avenue in Paramus. Throughout his 15 years at Cushman & Wakefield, David’s agency successes have included Samsung Electronics 230,000 SF U.S. headquarters at 85 Challenger Road in Ridgefield Park. He has acted as leasing agent for Onyx Equities for several assets throughout New Jersey, landing tenants such as Octapharma, Sony and Clover Health. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Architecture from Columbia University and a Masters Certificate in Real Estate Finance at New York University. He is also the Vice President of the Columbia Club of New Jersey and served a term of ten years on the Montclair Kimberley Academy Alumni Board.

Jose is a senior managing director and co-office head in the New Jersey office of JLL Capital Markets, Americas. He joins JLL as part of the HFF acquisition and is a member of the firm’s leadership committee. Jose specializes in investment advisory throughout New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and also oversees the day-to-day operations of the firm’s New Jersey office. During the course of his more than 25-year commercial real estate career, he’s been involved in more than $62 billion of office, industrial, retail, multifamily and land sales. Jose started at HFF in March 2010. Before that, he was the executive director of Cushman & Wakefield’s New York area investment sales group where he spent more than 17 years. He began his real estate career as a real estate analyst at PaineWebber, UBS, Inc.

Seena Stein is the founding partner of Newmark Knight Frank's New Jersey office. She possesses over 35 years of experience in commercial real estate and has represented such companies as Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Citigroup, Equitable Life Assurance, Forest Laboratories, Inc., Goldman Sachs & Co., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Knight Trading Group and Morgan Stanley. In addition, she has represented property owners such as Lefrak, Mack-Cali and UBS, among numerous others. She is adept at all aspects of commercial real estate, from tenant representation and leasing agency work to investment sales. Over the course of her career, Ms. Stein has completed many notable transactions, including: a 266,000-square-foot transaction for Knight Trading Group, a 244,356-square-foot lease on behalf of Equitable Life Assurance, a 205,000-square-foot lease for Forest Laboratories, Inc., a 157,685-square-foot investment sale on behalf of JEMB Realty as well as numerous other investment sales. Prior to joining NKF in 1994, Ms. Stein was senior vice president and director of sales and leasing for Jacobson, Goldfarb & Tanzman Associates (JGT) for more than eight years. Previously, she was vice president and director of sales and leasing for Helmsley Spear. Ms. Stein also owned her own company, Seena Stein, Inc., which specialized in corporate real estate. Ms. Stein currently serves on the NAIOP board of directors and is a past president of both the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) and the Industrial & Office Real Estate Brokers Association (IOREBA). Additionally, Ms. Stein is a member of the New Jersey Division of CoreNet and a trustee at Monmouth Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University. A member of the President's Council of both Monmouth and Purdue Universities, Ms. Stein is also the chairperson of the board of trustees of Jersey City Medical Center - Barnabas Health in Jersey City, New Jersey. Ms. Stein is a founding member of Industrial/Commercial Real Estate Women (ICREW) and is listed in Marquis Who's Who and Who's Who of American Women. She has been honored on numerous occasions by such organizations as Business News, New Jersey's Who's Who (2002), NJ Business Leaders and Women Business Leaders (2001). In 2010, she was honored by Crossing Borders as New Jersey Commercial Real Estate Woman of the Year. Most recently, in 2012, she received the Humanitarian Award from the American Conference on Diversity and the NAIOP Humanitarian Award. Ms. Stein holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Rutgers University. She also holds a master's degree in information science and a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University.

Matthew Pestronk is co-founder of Post Brothers, a real estate investment, development and management company with singular and unique expertise in urban real estate development. Matthew serves as President of the company, engaged in the sponsorship of Class-A multifamily, mixed-use and retail development projects comprised of over 7,000 units that are operating, under development or disposed plus, over 400,000 sf of commercial space, with a total capitalized cost in excess of $2.5 billion. Matthew shares strategic leadership of the company with his brother, Michael, and is engaged in asset management, financing, and project and capital formation. Matthew has worked in real estate capital transactions for his entire 20+-year career and was previously a real estate financing executive in New York City prior to forming Post Brothers. Matthew is also very active in his community and has board service experience for multiple charitable organizations including the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, Beat the Streets Philadelphia, West Nottingham Academy, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is the Immediate past Chair of Jewish Federation Real Estate.

As director of asset management at Advance Realty, Angela Tsai oversees the day-to-day operations of the company’s multi-family and mixed-use projects. She is responsible for developing and implementing property-specific value enhancement strategies with regards to both the company’s current projects and acquisition pipeline. Previously, Tsai held the role of senior vice president at Eastdil Secured, where she was responsible for the valuation and closing of over $11 billion in multi-family rental assets in the New York City metro area, and oversaw various aspects of the company’s real estate investment banking activities. Prior to that she was an assistant vice president at Red Stone Partners, a subsidiary of Prudential Real Estate Investors. Tsai received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Carnegie Mellon University, and holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from Columbia Business School.

Eran Polack is CEO-NY and Co-Founder of HAP Investments, a New York-based real estate investment group that specializes in the development of residential and commercial properties including 500 Summit Avenue in Jersey City. He is also CEO of HAP Construction, a full-service construction management company. As CEO of HAP Investments, Mr. Polack oversees a diverse portfolio of residential and commercial real estate that is renowned for its location, proximity to mass transit, and innovative construction and design. He is an established entrepreneur with a long history of successful real estate ventures in Eastern Europe, Israel, and the United States. In the U.S., Mr. Polack has overseen the construction and development of 12 residential properties totaling over 2 million square feet. His strengths include the early identification of emerging regions, and the development of projects tailored for those markets. He also has a deep understanding of the budget, schedule, and quality necessary to achieve success for any real estate project. Mr. Polack was one of the first developers to identify East Harlem as well as the Journal Square neighborhood of Jersey City as areas in preliminary stages of urban revitalization. He was also an early leader in the revival of Neve Tzedek, a highly coveted neighborhood in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Yair Goldberg is EVP Sales and Marketing of U-tron. Yair has over 15 years of experience in the development and implementation of automated parking solutions. He is a member of both the National Parking Association (NPA) Parking Consultants Council and the Automated & Mechanical Parking Association (AMPA) technical standards committee. Yair holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Nicholas Racioppi, Jr. is head of the Real Estate and Financial Institutions Practice Groups at Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP, with offices in Morristown and Trenton, New Jersey and midtown Manhattan. Nick has considerable commercial real estate experience, particularly in the acquisition, development, zoning and planning, leasing and sale of commercial and industrial properties. Nick also represents lenders in all types of real estate financings and has extensive experience in complex real estate workouts. In addition, he is well-versed in the formation and structuring of real estate partnerships and joint ventures. Riker Danzig’s Real Estate Practice was awarded “Jersey Dealmakers of the Year” by the New Jersey Law Journal in 2018. Nick is included in Band One of the 2016-2018 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business for Real Estate Law, and has been included on the Best Lawyers list in the fields of Real Estate and Real Estate Litigation since 2007. Nick has also been named to the BTI Client Service A-Team List for providing “the absolute best levels of client service