South Florida Retail & Mixed-Use Revolution

Ryan Shear manages the development of a growing real estate portfolio with over $10B in assets, including all acquisitions, financing, construction, design, marketing, sales and operations. Ryan primarily focuses on new construction condo and multifamily high rises in urban cores, including Miami, New York, Orlando, Denver, Atlanta and more. Recent condo projects he’s spearheaded include Echo Aventura, Echo Brickell, Muse Sunny Isles, Sage Longboat Key Residences, E11EVEN Hotel & Residences and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel & Residences Miami. Recent multifamily projects include X Miami, Society Las Olas, Society Biscayne, Society Orlando and Society Wynwood. Ryan graduated with a BA in Business Administration from the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University in Atlanta.

David manages all activities and growth at East End, along with co-founder Jonathon Yormak. David’s primary areas of focus include the acquisition of new investments, establishing acquisition strategy and target market focus, and growing the firm’s capital relationships. Prior to founding East End, David was a Director at Broadway Partners responsible for running acquisitions in the Eastern United States. In that role, David was directly responsible for the acquisition of 4.5 million square feet of assets in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Florida. As one of the firm’s first employees, David was instrumental in the growth of the company and building out the infrastructure of the firm. David was also involved in asset management, dispositions, and new business initiatives. Earlier in his career, David was in the real estate investment banking group at Lazard Frères & Co, where he was involved in transactions totaling over $1.4 billion in value. David holds a B.S. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Scott Sherman is Founder and Principal of Miami-Based Torose Equities. He is responsible for the firm's strategic direction, sourcing investment opportunities, capital markets and operations. Torose is a real estate investment firm with several different verticals, including a value-add urban retail, office, and mixed-use strategy within the Southeastern United States. Prior to launching Torose, Scott co-founded Tricera Capital where he led the charge on strategic direction, capital markets and sourcing investment opportunities. In this role, Scott built a portfolio in excess of $700M over five years and consistently delivered returns in excess of 20% IRR and a 2x multiple across realized investments. Scott maintains ownership and major decisions across the Tricera portfolio and continues to be a minority owner of Tricera Capital. Previously, Scott was Vice President of Acquisitions at Thor Equities. He was responsible for acquisitions in the Southeast United States including Miami, Washington, DC, Nashville, Austin and Charleston. Additionally, he was a key member of Thor’s expansion into Montreal, London and France. At Thor, Scott completed in excess of $2 Billion of acquisitions focusing on urban retail and mixed-use assets. Prior to Thor, Scott was the Director of Acquisitions at Becker Brothers where he was responsible for sourcing and executing value-add strategies across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic U.S. During his tenure at Becker Brothers, he managed a mix of asset types including retail, office and parking garages. Before Becker Brothers, Scott began his career at Ernst & Young in the Transaction Real Estate Advisory group where he also obtained his CPA license in the state of NY. Scott is a native of South Florida and currently resides in Miami with his wife Laura, son Lucas, and daughter Lily. He received his MS and BS in Accounting from the University of Florida where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. Scott is a member of ICSC, and CIASF, in addition to several philanthropic organizations he dedicates time to in his community.

Drew Schaul is Senior Vice President of Advisory and Transaction Services, specializing in retail representation of landlords and tenants. Schaul has more than 15 years of experience and has completed numerous transactions throughout South Florida and the country, with special concentration in national high-profile street retail, lifestyle centers and enclosed shopping destinations. Schaul returns to CBRE after a seven-year tenure with Robert K. Futterman & Associates (RKF), where he established and led the firm’s Miami’s operations. He was the exclusive real estate representative for Brooks Brothers, Allen Edmonds, Steve Madden and ECI (a division of The Cordish Companies) across the country. Schaul has secured locations for prominent tenants in high-streets throughout South Florida, including John Varvatos and Zadig & Voltaire on Lincoln Road, Oliver Peoples in the Design District, Shake Shack in Mary Brickell Village, and Blue Bottle Coffee in Coconut Grove. His landlord agency experience includes notable assignments, such as Esplanade at Aventura and The Collection at Boca Town Center, on behalf of Seritage Growth Properties, as well as the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino at its Hollywood and Tampa locations, on behalf of Hard Rock International and The Cordish Companies. Drew also led the leasing team advising Rockpoint on the repositioning and releasing of Mary Brickell Village, an open-air top retail destination in Miami with 200,000-sq.ft. of retail space. Schaul’s work also extends to investment sales; he guided a team that successfully completed more than $430 million in investment sales transactions in 2015 and 2016, primarily in the emerging retail submarkets of Wynwood and Design District, on behalf of Redsky Capital, L3 Capital, Tristar Capital and RFR. He was also involved in the two largest retail investment transactions in the history of South Beach at the time–the $132 million sale of 1100 Lincoln Road (127,000 sq. ft.) to Vornado Realty Trust and the $139 million sale of TriStar Capital’s 53,000-sq.-ft. retail portfolio on Lincoln Road, to Acadia Realty Trust. He is member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and actively involved with Kristi House Charities.

Danielle Gonzalez concentrates on commercial real estate law. She represents national and local clients in connection with the acquisition, financing, leasing and disposition of retail centers, office buildings, industrial parks, multi-family residential properties, self-storage centers, parking facilities, and raw-land developments throughout the United States. Danielle possesses vast experience advising on commercial leasing, and represents both landlords and tenants on leases covering all real estate asset classes. She represents sellers and purchasers with the acquisition and disposition of numerous types of real property. She counsels borrowers in connection with secured financings, including acquisition loans, refinances and defeasances. Danielle also has experience counseling retail clients on the development of shopping center pads for brand-specific uses, including the negotiation of ground leases, CC&Rs, easements and design guidelines. She also has experience with acquiring, developing and financing self-storage centers. Finally, she counsels owners and managers in the negotiation of property management, as well as parking facility, agreements.

Whitney Robinette is a Principal at L3 Capital and joined the team in 2013. Whitney is primarily responsible for the asset management of L3’s portfolio, including leasing, construction management, and debt procurement. In addition, she is actively involved in acquisitions and investor relations.

Nicole Shiman is Senior Vice President of Investments, leading our Florida portfolio and office. She brings extensive experience in acquisitions and dispositions, as well as portfolio oversight and management, to the investment team. Nicole previously served as Vice President at Miami-based 13th Floor Investments, where she was responsible for leading acquisition initiatives, new business procurement and capitalization efforts. She was actively involved in the ongoing oversight, development, management and disposition of 13th Floor’s and its affiliates’ real estate portfolios. Prior to her work with 13th Floor, Nicole spent many years with The Boston Consulting Group in their Toronto, New York and Miami offices. Nicole graduated from The Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and received her Master’s in Business Administration from Harvard Business School. Nicole sits on the ULI Southeast Florida/ Caribbean Advisory Board, she serves as a Board Member for The University of Miami School of Law LLM program, and serves as a founding Board Member of the Wynwood Yard, a culinary incubator and community space located in Wynwood, Florida.

Mike Kelleher is Vice President – Specialty Leasing, Retail and Office for Federal Realty Investment Trust, and president of Federal’s recently launched RevUp subsidiary. From pop-ups to parking lot promotions, Kelleher works with brands to find the best way to tell their story in non-traditional ways from the short-term leasing of in-line space, sponsorships, corporate partnerships, common area leasing, advertising and programing. In this role, he has revolutionized Federal Realty’s model for these partnerships by creating a program that brings ideas to market faster than ever before. By using flexibility on rate, a streamlined contract process and collaborative thinking, Kelleher focuses on both enhancing the partner’s brand as well as that of the property to ultimately create excitement for visitors, drive business to tenants and help brands tell their story in a compelling way. Bring him an idea, and often in 24 hours, he can find the right space and create the right program to make it a reality. In this role he has partnered with mom & pop start-ups, massive global brands and everything in between to fill unused space with exciting, compelling destination retail. Through RevUp, he is extending his platform to other property owners and managers looking to increase their revenue by maximizing non-traditional income generation opportunities. Mr. Kelleher has almost 20 years of experience in management, sales, and marketing prior to joining the Trust. He previously served as Vice President and General Manager with the Rouse Company, and later General Growth Properties, at Faneuil Hall Marketplace, a historic festival marketplace in downtown Boston. During his time there, Mr. Kelleher oversaw the $30 million renovation of the historic property and led the operations, leasing, specialty leasing, and marketing efforts as well as the celebration of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace’s 25th anniversary.

Michael Comras is President and CEO of The Comras Company of Florida, a Miami Beach- based full-service real estate brokerage company founded in 1992. Comras specializes in the leasing and sale of urban and suburban retail properties across South Florida. As a principal in various development entities, Michael also has been involved in the construction, leasing and sale of properties that have evolved into some of the region’s top retail and entertainment destinations. Michael’s talent for seeing transactions from the perspectives of both owners and tenants has generated phenomenal success for once-languishing urban cores. He is extremely active in Miami’s emerging neighborhoods, including the burgeoning Wynwood Arts District, Coconut Grove, Design District and Downtown Miami. His influence also stretches beyond Miami’s urban core through various leasing assignments in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties. Clients represented by or located in a Comras property include Polo Ralph Lauren, Sephora, Nike, Forever 21, Apple, Le Pain Quotidian, Capital One Bank, BCBG, J Crew, Madewell, Sephora, Suit Supply, Lucky Strike, Bonobos, Sugarcane, and Tesla to name a few. On Miami’s mainland, Comras recently spearheaded the investor groups’ acquisitions of the lifestyle centers CocoWalk in Coconut Grove and Shops at Sunset Place in South Miami. His latest venture, BLVD at Lenox, a 200,000 square foot, multi-story retail development, features Target’s long-awaited debut on South Beach. Among the firm’s renown redevelopment achievements are the conception of Miami Beach’s Collins Avenue Fashion District and the renaissance of the historic Lincoln Road promenade. These achievements have culminated in Comras’ $370 million sale of an entire Lincoln Road blockfront, the largest sale of a retail property in Miami-Dade County history. New York-born, Comras holds a BA from the University of Miami and an MBA in banking and finance from Pace University. A licensed real estate broker in the state of Florida, he is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches. Comras participates in several business improvement districts and civic committees. He serves on the University of Miami Real Estate Advisory Board and is a sought-after panelist for real estate programs organized by ICSC and a variety of commercial real estate news providers. A former chairman of The Lincoln Road Marketing Association, he has also served on the Miami Beach Mayor’s Blue-Ribbon Task Force on Tourism-Retail- Nightlife/Dining. Charitable activities include The AIR Society of National Jewish Health (founding member), Women of Tomorrow, Bass Museum, Mount Sinai Medical Center and Miami Children’s Hospital.

Todd Rosenberg is co-founder and managing principal of Pebb Capital, a diversified, multi-strategy real estate and investment firm. Rosenberg oversees the strategic development of the company’s ventures and guides high-level endeavors from conceptualization to execution. As a member of a prominent South Florida real estate family, Rosenberg credits his intuitive approach to a close-knit upbringing surrounded by industry leaders. His extensive experience and innate entrepreneurial spirit have transformed Pebb Capital into a real estate investment force since its founding in 2014. The company has since aggregated a real estate development and capital investment portfolio valued at over $2 billion in student housing, retail, office, hospitality, multi-family, co-living, and parking, as well as lending and preferred equity ventures. Before helming Pebb Capital, Rosenberg was co-chief financial officer and in-house counsel for Pebb Enterprises, his family-operated business. He was previously a securities litigator at Fowler White Burnett and Homer Bonner & Delgado in Miami. Rosenberg holds a bachelor’s degree in speech communications from Syracuse University and a juris doctorate from Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York.

Andy along with his Co-Principal at UrbanX, Coralee Penabad, are the developers behind the River Landing Shops & Residences, an 8.14-acre-mixed use development under construction on the Miami River and the catalyst for development in the neighboring Allapattah community. River Landing is a modern urban lifestyle center bringing national retailers, shops, restaurants, office, entertainment and a waterfront linear park to Miami’s riverfront for residents and visitors. River Landing is creating a waterfront shopping and dining destination to serve rising neighboring communities such as the Miami Health District -- which enjoys one of the largest day-time populations in Florida--, downtown Miami, Allapattah, Little Havana and more. It will consist of approx. 345,000 square feet of retail/commercial space, 135,000 square feet of office, 528 market-rate apartments, more than 2,000 parking spaces and a landscaped Riverwalk. Future tenants include Publix Super Markets, Burlington Stores, TJ Maxx, West Marine, Ross Dress For Less, AT&T, Old Navy, Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby. Andrew can speak to the state of the construction, retail, lending and CRE industry during the Coronavirus crisis. He can compare - up to a certain point - the impact of the current financial crisis versus the economic crisis of 2008-2011. Back then, he did a lot of work disposing distressed assets for other developers.

Joe Ferst serves as the Director of Commercial and Hospitality in South Florida, covering the Miami-Dade and Fort Lauderdale markets. In this role, Joe manages new business experts that focus on acquisitions in new construction and overbuilds within the network footprint by implementing go-to-market strategies along with a consistent message to our clients in reference to the benefits of the Fision Fiber Optics network. Joe has a decade of experience in the management and the telecom industries making his leadership key in product placement, pricing strategy, and project execution. Under Joe’s leadership, Hotwire Communications has greatly expanded its market share in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Some of his most significant acquisitions for the company include municipal contracts in Miami Beach, Dania Beach & Aventura, as well as a 10 gigabit symmetrical connection to the BB&T Center, an 872,000 sq. ft. sports & entertainment facility and home of the Florida Panthers. The team has also been recognized for their involvement with the Charter Schools USA partnership, Miami Beach Convention Center and numerous hospitality deployments throughout the South Florida market. Previously, Joe was a Manager of Enterprise for the Southeastern USA at West Unified Communications Services. Identifying and educating potential customers comes naturally to Joe, as he brings his personal passion for technology into every interaction. Out of the office, Joe enjoys quality time with his family, boating, camping and watching Philadelphia sports.