From Architects To Attorneys, 20 South Florida Women Making Moves In CRE

Change is constant in South Florida, from the highways to the high-rises, and it wasn’t until the last half-century that women have had much say in how the region was shaped. 

While calls for gender equality have grown louder and policymakers more willing to listen, women still only occupied 37% of commercial real estate roles in 2020, according to the Commercial Real Estate Women Network, despite being around 51% of the U.S. population. 

Female representation in the industry has been relatively unchanged for the last 15 years, according to CREW, but Bisnow aimed to elevate their voices and celebrate their accomplishments at the 2024 South Florida Women Leading Real Estate awards last week.

“If I called all of the people in Miami, I couldn't have gathered this many women even 30 years ago,” Bilzin Sumberg partner Sara Barli Herald said from the stage on the rooftop penthouse of Riverside Wharf, west of Downtown Miami.  

“Kudos to everybody,” she said. “And by the way, we have a long way to go.”

LEADER OF THE YEAR

The honorees for Bisnow’s Leader of the Year award are doing the work of getting projects out of the ground in a region known for delays, while simultaneously navigating a challenging macroeconomic landscape. 

Barli Herald and Iris Escarra, Greenberg Traurig’s land use practice co-chair, help developers maneuver around complex and esoteric zoning guidelines to maximize a site’s potential. Escarra’s highest-profile recent case involved helping Related Group navigate the discovery of an ancient civilization at the site of a planned residential tower.  

Abanca USA Executive Vice President Monica Vazquez has made the bank a key partner for developers looking for financing in Miami. 

Naftali Group’s Danielle Naftali and Aria Development Group’s Andrea Gourdine are spearheading some of the towers that are now reshaping the skyline, while Terranova’s Mindy McIlroy is helping to transform Miami’s high street retail to cater to a wave of new arrivals. 

Together, they are forging ahead on creating a more resilient region, but Barli Herald said South Florida’s long-term growth will hinge on whether stability can be created in the insurance market. She is hoping reforms will create more geographically diverse insurance pools where properties at less risk can effectively offset the risk of things like coastal construction. 

“Our biggest challenge is going to be insurance,” she said. “We have to work on a national insurance reform that mitigates our insurance costs so that we’re not upside down, whether you're talking residential or commercial real estate.”

INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR

Today’s pressing challenges like insurance require creative and unique solutions, a specialty of this year’s Innovator of the Year award winners. 

There’s Catalina Arango, a vice president at Blackstone who is on the cutting edge of new technology, spearheading the investment firm’s artificial intelligence transformation initiatives. 

There’s also Aida Sanchez-Gomez, who, as a principal at Stantec, works in perhaps one of humanity’s oldest job sectors, construction. Still, she has found ways to innovate, including by participating in the Norman Foster Foundation’s Kharkiv Housing Challenge, an architecture competition that aims to find innovative solutions in a city torn apart by war.

In Miami, Related Group Senior Vice President Jessica Melendez has helped shepherd the design and construction of several transformative residential towers. A 30-year industry veteran, Melendez remembers carving her path in the industry despite hesitation from her male counterparts.

“When I first entered this industry, I was often met with skepticism and doubt simply because of my gender,” Melendez said. “However, through hard work, dedication, and an unwavering belief in my capabilities, I have not only survived but thrived.” 

This year’s award winners are operating in a rapidly evolving space that is still finding its postpandemic footing. Panelists said that tenants today are less concerned with shared amenities than they are their personal space. Digital leasing accounts for as much as 75% of activity, and luxury condos are selling online, sometimes sight unseen. 

The renter profile is also shifting as more and more people who would have previously owned a home opt to or are forced to rent.

“A decade ago, our target demographic was early to mid-20s just starting out,” said Andrea Rowe, the senior managing director for development at Mill Creek Residential. “That's really changed in the multifamily market. Our average ages [today] are mid-30s, early 40s. We're getting empty nesters and all of those changes.”

DEALMAKER OF THE YEAR

The flight of wealth to South Florida has continued to propel the luxury condo market, and two of Bisnow’s Dealmaker of the Year award winners are finding outsized success in the space. 

Dayssi Olarte de Kanavos, the president of Flag Luxury Group, touches everything the firm does, from site sourcing, project design, hotel programming and asset management, and her firm played a critical role in getting a condo building with Ritz-Carlton branding out of the ground in South Beach.

Meanwhile, Christine Martinez de Castro has spent the last several years selling the vision of famed developer Ugo Colombo to Miami condo buyers for CMC Group. She is marketing the exclusive Vita at Grove Isle. 

Her team is catering to a type of client that is increasingly focused on wellness, Sanchez-Gomez said. Buyers want not only a home but also a respite and place to prioritize themselves. 

“It's what buyers are looking for. Whether it's a cold plunge pool or a biophilic design, there's that need to bring the indoors out and the outdoors in,” she said. 

The other dealmaker winners, who have all helped clients expand in the region and beyond, reflect commercial real estate’s broad reach and resilience in South Florida.

Stacy Bercun Bohm, a partner at Akerman LLP, helped MSC Cruises expand its presence at Port Miami and secure more than $1B to refinance the Boca Resort & Club. 

In the retail space, Comras Co.’s Karen Maerovitz has helped institutional clients like Starwood, BlackRock and Morgan Stanley fill vacancies at their properties. 

Colliers’ Stephanie Rodriguez is forging ahead in a male-dominated sector as the Miami-based national director of U.S. industrial services. 

“South Florida is very much ahead of a lot of other markets,” Rodriguez told Bisnow last year. “I think that women rising to leadership roles in that area is just representative of the landscape of the region. It’s a cultural melting pot. It’s a place where people can really make their way and be very successful.”

RISING STARS

Five young women who have already made an outsized impact in the market were also honored as 2024’s Rising Stars.

They include Blanca Commercial Real Estate’s Nicole Kaiser, who has helped lease 1.4M SF of office space in Miami since she arrived from Washington, D.C., and Mabelle Perez, a director at Berkadia who has closed more than $250M in deals in the last five years. 

Giana Pacinelli, director of communications at CP Group, was honored for her integral role in repositioning the Boca Raton Innovation Campus as a community destination. 

J. Kelly Advisors CEO Jessica Browdy is leading a property management firm she founded in 2015, while Nicole Ryzuk is designing LEED-certified properties for Robert Derector Associates.

These new leaders are following in the footsteps of the women who came before them, but many of today’s female leaders are also determined to lend a helping hand to lift them up.

“I have a team of all women, and it's incredible,” Related Group Chief Marketing Officer Allison Goldberg said at the event. “They're young women, and one of the things that we can do as women is support young women and build them up.”

Today’s workplace may be more equitable than in decades past, but Goldberg acknowledged that representation is typically worse higher up the organizational chart. 

It will take wholesale shifts in policy, potentially at the behest of the federal government, to help close that gap, Barli Herald said. Creating workplaces that are more amenable to mothers — whether that is through more flexible scheduling, childcare opportunities, extended maternity leave — is what she sees as the key to leveling the playing field. 

“I don't ever think anyone should go through what I went through to stay in my profession,” said Barli Herald, a foster parent for 13 years.