Bay Area Office Market Outlook

A. Robert Paratte was appointed Executive Vice President, Chief Leasing Officer and Senior Advisor to the Chairman in December 2022 and is responsible for the company’s leasing and business development activities across the company. He served as Executive Vice President of Leasing and Business Development from January 2014 to November 2022. Mr. Paratte pursues new build-to-suit opportunities, cultivates, and expands the company’s roster of key tenant relationships, focuses on corporate marketing and branding, and assists in the professional development of all leasing personnel. Mr. Paratte has been instrumental in securing some of the largest lease transactions in the company’s development projects. Across a two-decade-plus career in commercial real estate, Mr. Paratte has held leadership roles in various disciplines, including leasing, property acquisitions, development, and property management. He joined Kilroy Realty after seven years at Tishman Speyer, where he was managing director for global leasing and business development and was responsible for maintaining and building relationships with corporate real estate executives across the country and around the world. Before Tishman Speyer, Mr. Paratte was a partner at San Francisco–based William Wilson and Associates. Mr. Paratte was named the San Francisco Business Times Deal Maker of the Year in 2002. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Planning from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. He is a licensed California Real Estate Broker and a member of the Urban Land Institute.

Stephanie is an Executive Vice President at The Swig Company, where she leads acquisitions, capital markets and capital raising. The Swig Company is a vertically-integrated family office that focuses primarily on office buildings and some multifamily properties. The Swig Family has an 85-year history and currently owns a little under 8MM SF of mostly office properties in New York, Bay Area, Southern California and Seattle. Prior to joining Swig in 2021, Stephanie was previously an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley's real estate investing group, where she spent more than a decade working in acquisitions. At Morgan Stanley, Stephanie acquired and managed core and opportunistic real estate investments worth approximately $2.5 billion across all asset classes. At Morgan Stanley, Stephanie was also an active member of the group’s U.S. sustainability committee and led Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts. Stephanie grew up in Hong Kong and Canada, graduated magna cum laude in Economics from Harvard University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a member of ULI and NAIOP. Stephanie is a Co-Chair of the ULI SF Programs Committee, and sits on the ULI SF Executive Committee, the ULI SF Commercial Local Product Council and a ULI National Product Council.

Roman Adler began his career with Newmark’s San Francisco office in 2005 and specializes in developing and implementing creative and flexible real estate strategies for users in the San Francisco market. Throughout his career Roman has worked with sophisticated corporate users across all business lines, as well as growing technology companies born in San Francisco. Roman is dogged in his pursuit of creative real estate solutions that fit the unique needs of each client, and prides himself on guiding clients through all aspects of a transaction. His tenacity, focus on detail and professionalism have made Roman one of the most highly respected brokers in the San Francisco market. Mr. Adler’s aggregate transaction volume totals more than 4.0 million square feet and more than $1.5 billion in total consideration.

Ashkon Aliyar is the Portfolio Director for Northern California at WeWork. During his four year tenure at WeWork, he also held a position as Director of Sales based in San Francisco. Ashkon has managed over 18 different individual contributors since moving into a leadership role in 2019, while overseeing 22 locations in the Bay Area. Throughout his career, Ashkon has proven himself as a driven leader who quickly adapts to change and motivates his teams to maintain high-level of performance within a fast-paced environment.

A name partner of the firm, Anton N. Natsis is Chair of Allen Matkins’ Real Estate Department and is one of the top real estate attorneys in the United States. His practice focuses on development, leasing, purchase and sale, and portfolio investment sales transactions involving office, retail, and industrial projects, as well as arbitrating numerous fair market value disputes, CAM disputes and other significant landlord/tenant disputes. He also has extensive experience in debt, equity, and joint venture workouts, and the purchase of distressed assets and distressed debt. Tony is continually sought out by some of the largest national land owners, such as J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Blackstone Real Estate, Brookfield Properties, HCP, Vornado Realty Trust, Regent Properties, The Irvine Company, Boston Properties, Equity Office Properties, Kilroy Realty, Inc., Beacon Capital Partners, MPG Office Trust, Kamehameha Schools (The Bishop Estate) and Westfield Corporation. He represents many governmental entities, including the LAUSD, State of California, and City of Anaheim. Tony is also frequently retained as counsel for major national office tenants, such as AT&T, Citicorp, the FDIC, AIG, The Walt Disney Company, and the Los Angeles Times. A frequent lecturer and author, Tony is the chief consultant for the California Continuing Education of the Bar Commercial Leasing Series, the legal education reference book on leasing for California attorneys, is an adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School for a course covering commercial real estate transactions, and has spoken before such national real estate groups as ULI and BOMA. Tony is a founding board member of The Ziman Real Estate Center, which is governed under the joint auspices of the UCLA Anderson School of Business and the UCLA Law School. In the past decade, Tony has closed commercial office leases exceeding 50 million square feet. He has worked on real estate purchase contracts with a total consideration of more than $30 billion and on development transactions with a total consideration in excess of $25 billion. Since 2006, Tony has represented clients in office building portfolio investment sales transactions involving over $75 billion of consideration. One of Tony's most significant transactions is the largest real estate acquisition deal in the history of the United States. He provided extensive real estate services in connection with Blackstone Real Estate's purchase of Equity Office Properties Trust, at that point the largest owner of office space in the U.S. other than the Federal Government, for $43 billion. Subsequently, Blackstone contracted to sell over 50% of the properties it purchased with such sales closing in the first and second quarter of 2007. Tony assisted Blackstone in its acquisition due diligence related to EOP and the subsequent sales of the properties. The transactions related to this deal included Maguire Properties' purchase of Blackstone/EOP in Orange County for $2 billion, Irvine Company's purchase of Blackstone/EOP in San Diego for $1 billion, Morgan Stanley's purchase of Blackstone/EOP in San Francisco for $2.5 billion, and Beacon Capital Partners’ purchase of Blackstone/EOP Seattle for $6.3 billion.

Mr. Slakman is the firm’s Vice President, Global ESG responsible for implementing ESG across Hines' global portfolio of investment and client accounts. This includes green and healthy building certifications and ratings, environmental data management, renewable energy projects, and investor RFPs and reporting. He also co-led the firm’s ESG Working Group and has been a critical part of the global sustainability leadership his entire tenure with the firm. Prior to joining the firm in 2014, his career included roles in sustainability, financial analysis, operations and client relations. Most recently, he served as Vice President of ULI Greenprint, where he managed relationships with members’ senior management, global asset management and operations teams across 34 companies representing $650B AUM. Slakman received his BS, Economics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Gordon Childress brings 34 years of experience in the construction industry across various markets, including airports, education, healthcare and manufacturing. He currently runs Skanska USA Building’s operations in the State of California. Previously, he held operational leadership roles at contractor and developer companies in Northern California and Oregon. Gordon is active in the local community. He currently sits on the CEA Executive Board and served as 2021 Chair of the Northern California Hard Hats with Heart. Hard Hats with Heart benefits the American Heart Association and works to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives, specifically aimed toward the construction industry’s elevated risk. A LEED accredited professional, Gordon received his B.S. in building construction from Texas A&M University.

Melissa is a Principal specializing in workplace planning and design based in our San Francisco office, where she collaborates with clients globally to reimagine the workplace as an incubator for innovation and entrepreneurship. She has more than 15 years of architectural experience in space planning, furniture selection, interior design, program development, and strategic planning for notable organizations in technology and professional services. Melissa speaks frequently at national design conferences and has been featured in leading industry journals. She has a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan.

Tan Diep, Project Manager at Willdan provides energy efficiency and sustainability design solutions to architects, engineers, and property owners. Willdan is a leading national company that is dedicated to facilitating the energy transition and offers a comprehensive suite of services, ranging from grid design, policy analysis, and electrification to demand response solutions. Partnering with commercial, public, and industrial buildings, as well as utilities, to provide tailored solutions that cater to specific project goals and design intent. Tan is an integral part of Willdan’s team and supports the California Energy Design Assistance (CEDA) Program. The program provides complimentary and comprehensive analysis of different energy efficiency options and provide incentives that are customized to your project's specific requirements.

Danielle Friend joined Harvest Properties as the Director of Architecture and Construction in June 2018. At Harvest, Danielle leverages her design and implementation expertise to evaluate acquisition targets as well as to develop the strategy for various asset repositioning efforts. Danielle’s responsibilities include developing and implementing project management processes and tools for the Operations and Asset Management Teams to ensure the optimal execution of capital and tenant improvement projects across the 11MM square foot portfolio. Prior to working at Harvest, Danielle spent eight years at JLL leading project management services for the Northwest Office Sector, overseeing 5 million+ square feet of capital and tenant improvement projects valued at over $250MM. Danielle earned her Master of Architecture degree from Pratt Institute. Prior to attending graduate school, she graduated with High Honors from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Originally from New York, Danielle and her husband moved to the Bay Area from Chicago 5 years ago and enjoying hiking in Marin with their dog, Reggie. Danielle and her family support various charitable organizations including the ASPCA, AIPAC, Equality California, and Venice Arts.

Tom Arnold is co-founder and CEO of Gridium. Prior to Gridium, Tom Arnold was the Vice President of Energy Efficiency at EnerNOC, and cofounder at TerraPass. Tom has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College. When he isn’t thinking about the future of buildings, he enjoys riding his bike and chasing after his two daughters.