Westchester & Fairfield State of the Market

Mr. Berg has been involved in real estate development for over 35 years. He joined the Cappelli Organization in 1999 as Executive Vice President and is a member of the in-house executive team responsible for the acquisition, approvals, development, management and marketing of the firm’s mixed-use, office, residential and retail developments. Prior to joining the Cappelli Organization, Mr. Berg was involved in corporate real estate development and construction as the Director of Market Development for AMF Bowling, Inc, Director of Development for Disney Development Company and Project Manager for Xerox Realty Corporation. During Mr. Berg’s career, he has been involved in all aspects of real estate development, management, leasing and construction, and several notable projects in which Mr. Berg was involved with include the White Plains City Center, a $700Million, 1.3Million square foot mixed-use project, the Ritz Carlton Hotel and Residences in White Plains, a $750Milllion, 950,000 square foot mixed-use hotel/condo/office project, Disney Studios Masterplan, a two million square foot office/sound stage/back of house project and two 1,000,000 square foot office parks for Xerox Realty Corporation. Mr. Berg is currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of Fuller Development Company, the development arm of the Cappelli Organization. Mr. Berg holds a B.A. from Trinity College and an M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Mr. Berg currently serves on the Board of Arts Westchester and the Stamford Downtown Special Services District. Mr. Berg previously served on the Board of Managers of The Ritz Carlton Westchester Tower 1 and Tower 2 as a Sponsor Representative and has also served on the Condominium Association Boards at Trump Tower at City Center and Trump Plaza New Rochelle.

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.

Russell Tepper serves as Mill Creek Residential’s Senior Managing Director for development activities in the Northeast region including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. His duties include leading this regional division of Mill Creek for both ground-up and adaptive reuse developments, while furthering its objective to create tailored residential communities that cater to surrounding neighborhoods’ needs. Prior to joining Mill Creek in 2014, Mr. Tepper was Vice President of Development at Matrix Development Group, where he managed the company’s urban redevelopment portfolio, seeking out new acquisitions of residential and mixed-use properties throughout New Jersey and suburban Philadelphia. Throughout his career, he has been involved in the entitlement, development and construction of over 4,500 multifamily apartment homes and 5 million SF of commercial space. Mr. Tepper is licensed in the State of New Jersey and earned a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration with concentrations in finance and international business from the University of Delaware.

Brian DiPaola has over ten years of experience in public accounting at RSM, serving both public and private clients in the areas of real estate, construction, retail, manufacturing, construction, and professional service firms. He has significant experience with SEC reporting requirements as well as internal control testing required under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404. Brian has experience auditing complex transactions including business combinations, stock compensation arrangements, and consolidations. In his role, Brian supervises audit teams and coordinates the audit process from start to finish, including: • Designing audit procedures in complex areas utilizing the firm’s risk-based audit approach • Applying economic and general business knowledge to complex issues, such as: assisting clients in identifying and evaluating alternatives; evaluating the adequacy of management's implementation of new accounting standards such as ASC 805 Business Combinations and ASC 350 (formerly SFAS No. 142), Intangibles-Goodwill • Proactively communicating with clients and anticipating and identifying client challenges and concerns • Coordinating and communicating engagement deliverables and results to clients in a clear and accurate manner • Facilitating Continuing Professional Education related to the firm’s IDEA Data Extraction and Analysis tool to RSM employees in the state of Connecticut Education • Bachelor of Science, accounting, University of Connecticut

The controlling partner of the firm, President & CEO Peter Duncan has spent over 30 years at George Comfort & Sons. Over the years, he has been involved in and overseen every facet of this top-tier commercial real estate business, from acquisitions to financing, repositioning, management and leasing. Since taking over leadership of GCS in the early 1990’s, Peter has been responsible for acquiring and redeveloping many of the company-owned properties, totaling over $3 billion in value. He is also integrally involved in the leasing and renovation of all GCS assets. Mr. Duncan received a B.A. from Trinity College and is a licensed commercial broker in the State of New York and New Jersey and is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). Mr. Duncan also serves as a board member of Trinity College, The Realty Foundation of New York, Phipps Houses and the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

Jeffrey H. Newman, senior vice president of Empire State Realty Trust and its affiliates, directs the leasing, marketing, operations and financial management of the Greater NY Metropolitan portfolio of Class-A, multi-tenanted office properties comprised of 1.8 million square feet within five different assets. Mr. Newman, age 57, joined Empire State Realty Trust (formerly Malkin Properties) in January of 1995, and has more than thirty-two years of commercial real estate experience. Before joining, Mr. Newman served as general counsel for Albert D. Phelps, Inc. at Merritt 7 Corporate Park. Previously, he was a vice president and general counsel for Collins Development Corporation (now Collins Enterprises) and, before that, an associate in the real estate department of the Manhattan office of the national law firm formerly known as Reavis & McGrath (now Fulbright & Jaworski). He has served for the last several years on the March of Dimes Fairfield County Real Estate Breakfast Awards Committee, and serves on the Boards of Directors of the Fairfield/Westchester Chapter of the Real Estate Finance Association (REFA), the Stamford Chamber of Commerce and the Stamford Partnership. Mr. Newman is also a past president of the New York City/Westchester and Fairfield Counties Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), and a past Executive Committee member of the Westchester Chapter of Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA). He is a member of CoreNet, ULI, and REBNY, and has participated as a panelist or moderator at several real estate industry events, including programs and conferences sponsored by NAIOP, Bisnow, Real Estate Exchange, REFA, The Business Council of Westchester, RealShare, Westchester County Board of Realtors, Commercial Real Estate Division, and Westchester and Fairfield Chapters of BOMA. A cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the law school at George Washington University, Mr. Newman is a member of the New York State and Connecticut bars, and formerly served on the Executive Committee to the Real Estate Section of the Connecticut bar. He served for several years as central Fairfield County captain for the University of Pennsylvania’s Secondary School Committee, and continues to serve as a participant in Penn’s Alumni Interview Program for Fairfield County. He is a licensed New York State real estate broker, and has also successfully completed several courses towards a master's degree in Real Estate Development and Investment at New York University. Mr. Newman and his family reside in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Chris Ressa joined DLC in 2007. As Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Ressa is responsible for overseeing all tenant facing operations including leasing, property management, construction and marketing on all DLC owned and third-party managed assets. During his tenure at DLC, his relationships, leasing ability, and leadership have led to numerous successful repositioning of assets. His most notable leasing transactions have included deals with TJX, Ross Dress for Less, Burlington, Dick’s Sporting Goods, The Kroger Company, Best Buy, Ulta, LA Fitness and Planet Fitness.Prior to coming to DLC, he worked for Ashkenazy Acquisitions as a Regional Leasing Manager responsible for all new and renewal leases in a portfolio of approximately 3.5 million square feet of retail real estate including regional malls, grocery-anchored centers, power centers, and street retail. His career started at The Sherwin-Williams Company as a Real Estate Manager handling existing store renewals, and new stores in the Eastern Division Region. In addition to new store real estate, Mr. Ressa’s role involved handling the real estate for district/regional offices as well as warehousing locations for Sherwin-Williams. Mr. Ressa received a BA in economics from Rutgers University in 2005. Mr. Ressa is an active member of the ICSC, received his CLS (Certified Leasing Specialist) in 2010 and in December 2012 became a member of the ICSC CLS Committee.

Mr. Gubner is President and CEO of RHYS. He has more than 24 years of experience in serving commercial real estate clients and has overseen transactions with an aggregate value in excess of three-billion dollars. Prior to his role at RHYS, Mr. Gubner formed Chase Commercial in 1998 and merged Chase Commercial with GVA Williams in 2002, which was purchased six years later by FirstService Corporation. Prior to founding Chase Commercial, he spent ten years with Pyramid Real Estate, becoming a full partner in 1995. Today, Mr. Gubner oversees all aspects of RHYS including retail leasing, office leasing and investment sales. He is consistently featured on expert panels and performs numerous speaking engagements to the industry. Since 1998, he has built and led three commercial real estate companies from the ground up, each time he was responsible for all aspects of founding, growing and eventually merging and/or selling the company. In addition, he has spearheaded the investment sales team at each one of his companies and is widely recognized as an industry leader in the field.