Long Island City & Queens Annual Conference

Mr. Kurd is a Managing Director at Savanna where he is a member of the investment committee and is responsible for new investments, refinancings, dispositions and asset management. Mr. Kurd’s responsibilities include acquisition sourcing, underwriting and structuring. In addition, Mr. Kurd manages and oversees the financing, development, leasing and repositioning of Savanna properties. Prior to joining Savanna in 2010, Mr. Kurd worked as a financial analyst in the Commercial Real Estate Group at Deutsche Bank in New York. At Deutsche Bank, Mr. Kurd provided financing to public corporations, private equity groups and individuals owning or acquiring commercial real estate assets in all property types within the United States. Mr. Kurd received a Bachelor of Sciences in Economics with concentrations in Finance and Real Estate from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Feehan is a Principal of Normandy Real Estate Partners, primarily responsible for overseeing New York City investments for the company including sourcing new acquisitions and execution of business plans as well as sourcing joint venture equity and arranging debt financing. Prior to joining Normandy, he was employed by PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York, where he served as Senior Associate in the Real Estate Business Advisory Services Group. His experience encompasses acquisition structuring, due diligence, debt underwriting, acquisition underwriting, market analysis, and portfolio valuation. Mr. Feehan graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Madison with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, and earned a Master’s degree in Real Estate Finance from New York University.

Adam joined LargaVista in 2002. Along with LargaVista’s CEO, Marcello Porcelli, Adam oversees LargaVista’s New York development business including acquisitions, entitlements and approvals, deal structuring, marketing and leasing. Adam is also integrally involved in identifying new strategic investment opportunities outside of LargaVista’s core business. LargaVista’s recent projects include the successful execution of 300 Lafayette, an 85,000sf flagship retail and boutique office development located at the gateway to Soho. After securing all required entitlements and approvals LargaVista entered into a joint venture with The Related Companies. In June of 2019, a lease with Microsoft was signed for the entirety of the office component / Simultaneously therewith, the building was sold to Nightingale Properties and Wafra. Largavista retained the fee ownership in the land. Currently, LargaVista is completing the Gaseteria Building, a 65,000sf former industrial building built in the 1920’s in the heart of Long Island City. LargaVista is converting the building for creative office use. The name of the building pays homage to LargaVista’s legacy brand, Gaseteria. In addition to these two projects, LargaVista is currently engaged in pre-development work on various projects encompassing over 1,500,000sf of residential, commercial and industrial space. Prior to joining LargaVista, Adam worked as an associate in the corporate department at Paul Hastings. Adam earned a Juris Doctor degree from Brooklyn Law School in 2000 and graduated Cum Laude from the University of North Carolina, Greensboro in 1997. Adam is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Long Island City Business Improvement District and is an avid supporter of various charitable organizations including Sunrise Day Camp, the UJA and the Grenville Baker Boys and Girls Club.

Mr. Betesh joined Meridian Capital Group in May 2017, where he leads an eight-member team. Prior to joining Meridian, he served as a Director at Cushman & Wakefield Capital Markets and a Director of Capital Services at Massey Knakal Realty Services. To date, Mr. Betesh has financed over 500 buildings across the United States and has closed well in excess of over $5 billion in transactions throughout his career. Previously, Mr. Betesh was a Portfolio Manager at a private family office, where he managed a portfolio of properties in Midtown Manhattan and was principally responsible for restructuring and developing the portfolio, in addition to directly leasing the properties and managing the finances at a corporate level. Mr. Betesh attended Brooklyn College, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Finance and was honored with the Brooklyn College Presidential Scholarship.

Evan J. Daniel joined Modern Spaces in 2014 as the Executive Vice President and Founder of the Commercial & Investment Property Group. In this role, he oversees all investment sales operations for the company, including the sales of multi-family, mixed-use, retail, office, industrial, hotel, and development properties. The division directs retail, commercial, office and industrial leasing as well as property management. Prior to joining the firm, Evan was a Director of Sales at Massey Knakal Realty Services, exclusively covering the Long Island City and Astoria markets. He has successfully closed over 100 properties worth an aggregate consideration of approximately $800,000,000. Evan has advised both private and institutional clients on positioning their assets, and provided valuation services on more than 1,200 properties with an estimated value of over $9 billion. Outside of his professional life, Evan has been the basketball coach and Athletic Director for a local Junior High School in Queens since 2006. Evan resides in Long Island with his wife, Laya, and four children, Jake, Allie, Hailey and Brandon. He can be reached at the Modern Spaces Headquarters office at 516-508-8189.

Jeremy Shell is a Principal the Executive Vice President for TF Cornerstone responsible acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, development and finance. He has over twenty-two years of experience in the real estate industry. Prior to joining the Company in 2010, Mr. Shell was Vice President at Dune Real Estate Partners, an opportunistic real estate private equity fund. Prior to joining Dune, Mr. Shell worked in private equity and real estate investment banking at Deutsche Bank (formerly Alex. Brown & Sons). Mr. Shell received an MBA from Columbia University (Beta Gamma Sigma) in 2004 and a BS degree from Cornell University in 1998. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and lives on Manhattan's Upper East Side with his family.

Seth Pinsky serves as Executive Vice President and Investment Manager of the RXR Metropolitan Emerging Market Strategy . In this role, Pinsky is leading RXR’s efforts to invest in “emerging opportunities” in New York City and the surrounding Tri-State region, focusing on asset classes and geographic regions that have historically been characterized by underinvestment, but that have significant growth potential due to planned or in-place infrastructure and other relevant characteristics. Prior to joining RXR, Pinsky served as Director of Mayor Bloomberg’s Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, which developed a $20 billion plan to help neighborhoods stricken by Hurricane Sandy to rebuild smarter and stronger and to protect critical citywide systems and infrastructure from the likely impacts of climate change in coming decades. Pinsky also served as President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), a position to which he was appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2008, after joining the agency in 2003 as a vice president. During his tenure, NYCEDC became an international leader in the field of economic development, focusing both on transforming the city’s underlying economy and investing in its critical infrastructure. While at NYCEDC, Pinsky served as a lead negotiator on behalf of New York City for projects ranging from Yankee Stadium and Citifield, to the World Trade Center, to the acquisition of Hunters Point South in Queens, the largest middle-income housing development in the City since Starrett City. Among the initiatives advanced by NYCEDC under Pinsky’s leadership were the redevelopment of Willets Point in Queens, Coney Island in Brooklyn, the Homeport in Staten Island, and the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx, as well as the creation of a major new bioscience research park on City-owned land, north of Bellevue Hospital. Under Pinsky, NYCEDC also managed the construction of the first two phases of the High Line in Manhattan, launched a new East River Ferry service connecting Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan and announced and advanced plans for the world’s largest observation wheel in St. George in Staten Island. In the area of economic modernization, under Pinsky, NYCEDC created the Center for Economic Transformation (CET), which, in addition to launching a network of business incubators across the City that, at the time of Pinsky’s departure, housed more than 600 companies, developed and oversaw the Bloomberg Administration’s international Applied Sciences NYC competition. The Applied Sciences competition will result in a significant expansion of Columbia University’s engineering school, as well as the creation of a new engineering institute in Downtown Brooklyn led by NYU that will include CUNY, Carnegie Mellon University and others. It will also result in the creation of a $2 billion engineering campus on Roosevelt Island, being developed by Cornell University and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the NYCEDC, Pinsky was an associate at the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in the Real Estate practice and a financial analyst at James D. Wolfensohn Inc. He is a graduate of Columbia College, where he majored in Ancient History, and of Harvard Law School, and is an Adjunct Senior Research Scholar at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Pinsky lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Angela and their children, Theo and Amelia.

Andrew Chung founded Innovo Property Group (“IPG”) in 2015. Prior to starting IPG, Andrew Chung was a Partner at The Carlyle Group in the U.S. Real Estate Fund. He served as head of the New York office for the Real Estate Fund for 10 years. Mr. Chung is currently a member of the Advisory Board for NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate. He was also recognized by ranking in the New York Observer’s “Power 100: The Most Powerful People in NY Real Estate” in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Mr. Chung graduated from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, with a B.S. in Economics.

Stephen R. Preuss is a Vice Chairman in the Capital Markets Group of Cushman & Wakefield, where he focuses on investment sales for the New York Metropolitan Area primarily in Queens. Team Preuss is made of six associates working under Stephen. Each associate is an expert in the Queens market and facilitates a full-service approach to their clients Previously, Stephen was Vice President of Sales at Massey Knakal Realty Services. Cushman & Wakefield acquired Massey Knakal on December 31, 2014. Cushman and Wakefield is a global leader in commercial real estate services, helping clients transform the way people work, shop, and live. The firm’s 43,000 employees in more than 60 countries provide deep local and global insights that create significant value for occupiers and investors around the world. Cushman & Wakefield is among the largest commercial real estate services firms with revenues of $5 billion across a variety of core services of agency leasing, capital markets, investment management, and valuation & advisory, amongst others. Since the pairing of the truly dominant force that Massey Knakal Realty Services had built in the New York metro area with Cushman & Wakefield’s global platform and unparalleled breadth of real estate services, we have established a cohesive identity, which we have defined as “Think Globally. Act Locally.” This motto embodies our all-encompassing competencies as a full-service, global real estate firm with intensive block-by-block knowledge of each submarket. Cushman & Wakefield is proud to be #1 in New York City with 41% market share in transaction volume over $500,000, and 71% market share in transaction volume over $250 million. Stephen has transacted in nearly $3 billion of investment and commercial real estate over his 16 year career. During his tenure, he has sold over 350 properties to date and currently has over $800,000,000 in exclusive listings, the largest commercial inventory in Queens. Stephen is the #1 top producer in Queens and Top 100 Nationwide for Investment Sales and Capital Markets. He is a major contributor to multiple major publications including The Real Deal, The New York Real Estate Journal, Crain's, Qns.com, Commercial Observer, Real EstateWeekly, and several other regional and national publications. Stephen is a board member of the Queens Community House, and a major contributor of several other not-for-profit organizations including the, Long Island City Partnership, Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, Chinese Business Association, and the Chinese American Planning Council.

Andrew Barrocas has enjoyed success as a dominant force and respected authority in the New York City real estate industry for many years. In his accomplished career, he has sold over $10-billion worth of property, and managed, trained, recruited and collaborated with the city's top agents and brokers. As CEO and Founder of MNS, Andrew currently oversees more than a billion dollars’ worth of real estate, as well as an exceptional team of talented agents and project managers focused on providing the utmost level of client service. Andrew entered the real estate field after graduating from the WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. He went on to achieve instant success and recognition as one of the "Top 30 Brokers Under 30", according to The Real Deal. Over the years, Andrew has been a continually sought-after expert on real estate who has been featured in The New York Times' "The 30-Minute Interview", quoted in all major New York publications, and spotlighted on The Stoler Report. Since founding MNS in 2006, Andrew has grown the company substantially in terms of its revenue and its team, which is now over 125 people. He also serves his industry as a licensed teacher through the State of New York, passing on his knowledge and array of professional experience of real estate sales to real estate brokers and salespersons. Andrew is also an active member of The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), The Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), Young Jewish Professionals (YJP) and Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He and his wife Rachel are the proud parents of three beautiful girls – Cayden, Ella and Zoe.

John specializes in serving clients in the real estate and construction industries. As a Partner with over twenty years of experience, John provides audit, tax, cost segregation services and management advisory services to owners, operators, developers, home builders and contractors. John’s work includes the planning and supervision of various audit engagements, as well as the review of various partnership, corporate and individual tax returns and the analysis of the purchase, sale and financing of real estate transactions. In addition to the above, John has developed a good understanding of International Financing Reporting Standards (IFRS) and their effect on the financial statements of real estate owners and developers. John also participates in several of the firm’s committees, including the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group, the Best Practice Group and the Cost Segregation Group. In addition to John’s CPA license, John is one of less than 100 professionals in the Tri-State area to hold the Certified Construction Industry Financial Professional (CCIFP) designation, attesting to his extensive experience and expertise in the construction industry. John is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of CPAs, the Construction Financial Management Association and formerly served on the board of the Greater New York Construction User’s Council.

As Chief Investment Officer at King Street, Mr. Albro has a broad range of responsibilities including acquisitions, dispositions, development, and asset management. Prior to King Street, Mr. Albro most recently served as a Senior Vice President at Beacon Capital Partners, with responsibility for acquisitions and dispositions as well as asset management of the Boston region.

Elizabeth Lusskin is the President of the LIC Partnership and Executive Director of the LIC Business Improvement District. In this role, she promotes economic development across the vibrant Long Island City industrial, commercial, residential and cultural arts mixed-use community. She is the Co-Chair of the Sunnyside Yard Master Plan Steering Committee, was Co-Chair of the Amazon Community Advisory Committee Project Plan Committee and is a Member of the Western Queens Tech Task Force, among other roles. Prior to LIC, she served as the Chief of Staff and Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU. Through her former consulting practice, Elizabeth Lusskin Consulting LLC, she advised public, private for-profit and non-profit clients on economic and community development, organizational management and strategic planning. Elizabeth has served as Deputy Commissioner of NYC SBS, General Counsel to the Downtown Alliance and Legislative Counsel at NYS Office of Federal Affairs. She is a graduate of Yale University and NYU School of Law.

Fernando Gómez-Baquero holds a Ph.D. in Nanoscale Science and Engineering from the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany SUNY. His research has focused on advanced nanomaterials for energy storage applications, on the economic impact of pervasive nanotechnologies, and on tech entrepreneurship. Dr. Gómez-Baquero has more than 15 years of experience in the nanotechnology industry, starting with production and characterization of carbon nanotubes and developing of polymer/nanotube composite materials. Dr. Gómez-Baquero is recognized as a leader in the fabrication of nanoengineered electrodes for lithium-ion batteries using semiconductor processes and using nanotechnology to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries. Dr. Gómez-Baquero has several publications in nanomaterials research and on the economic impact of nanotechnologies and number of patent applications in diverse applications of nanomaterials. Dr. Gómez-Baquero is also de Director of Runway and Spinoffs at the Jacobs Technion – Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, where he is helping postdoctoral entrepreneurs build companies out of digital technologies in diverse fields such as digital health, telecommunications, education, cybersecurity, and IoT. The Runway Startup Postdoc Program is part business school, part research institution, and part startup incubator. Based at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, Runway ushers recent PhDs in digital technology fields through a paradigm shift — from an academic mindset to an entrepreneurial outlook. Startup Postdocs arrive with ideas for unproven products and markets that require time and specialized guidance to develop. These startups demand more than a few months to launch. They need a bit of a “runway.” That’s why our program lasts 12–36 months and incorporates academic and business mentorship. The Runway Startup Postdoc Program provides an impressive package valued at $277,000 that includes a salary, research budget, housing allowance, space and more in the first year. In addition, the Startup Postdoc receives significant benefits and perks and corporate support valued at $300,000.

Salzman is an Executive Managing Director and Principal in the New York office of Lee & Associates. In his 24-year career in commercial real estate, Mr. Salzman has helped landlords in Long Island City create significant value by helping them reposition their properties. He has also completed numerous transactions on behalf of office tenants in the market. Mr. Salzman currently heads the leasing team for The Kaufman Organization’s Cardinal Building, located at 21-01 51st Street. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Babson College, a Master’s Degree from New York University, is an active member of SIOR, REBNY and he serves on the board of the Long Island City Partnership.