South Florida: Capital Deployment Update

Nitin Motwani has served as the Managing Partner of Miami Worldcenter Associates since 2006. In this role, he has overseen the development of a $4 billion mixed-use real estate project located in the heart of downtown Miami, Florida. Encompassing 27 acres of retail, residential, office and hotel uses, Miami Worldcenter is the largest urban development project underway in Miami and among the largest in the U.S. Mr. Motwani is responsible for every facet of the project, including land acquisition, zoning and entitlements, financing (public and private), joint ventures and development. Mr. Motwani is currently overseeing $1.2 billion of development at Miami Worldcenter and has secured over $500 million of debt in the past twelve months. In 2009, Mr. Motwani was involved in the creation of Encore Capital Management (Encore), a private equity fund focused on opportunistic real estate investments and development. He now serves as Encore’s Managing Director, focusing on acquisitions, dispositions, development and fundraising. Encore is developing over 20,000 rental apartments, homes for sale, and residential lots with sell out revenue of approximately $4 billion. Encore assets under management are approximately $2 billion with committed equity in excess of $1 billion. Encore currently has investments in Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa, Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Portland, Jersey City, and Phoenix. Earlier in his career, Mr. Motwani was the President of Merrimac Ventures where he oversaw the acquisition, entitlement, asset management and disposition of hotel, office, retail and residential assets throughout the country. Prior to joining Merrimac Ventures, Mr. Motwani was an equity derivatives trader at Goldman Sachs in New York. An active member of the greater South Florida business community, Mr. Motwani serves as a member of the board of the Miami Downtown Development Authority where he is the chair of both the economic development and marketing committees. He also serves as Board Chair of the University of Miami’s Master of Real Estate Development (MRED) program. He has also recently been named as Co-Chair for One Community One Goal, Miami Dade County’s long term strategic plan for economic development. Nationally, he is a member of both the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC). He is also a member of City Year’s Red Jacket Society and The Scleroderma Foundation. Mr. Motwani has been recognized as one of “Real Estate’s Rising Stars” by The Real Deal South Florida; one of South Florida’s “20 Emerging Leaders Under 40” by The Miami Herald; one of the country’s “Stars to Watch: Rising Leaders in Commercial Real Estate” by Commercial Property Executive Magazine; “Young Leader of the Year” by the Urban Land Institute; a “Top 40 Under 40” professional by the South Florida Business Journal; and a Power Leader in Commercial Real Estate by the South Florida Business Journal. Mr. Motwani earned a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Duke University and holds a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University. He lives in Miami with his wife and three sons.

​​Arnaud Karsenti is the Managing Principal of 13th Floor Investments where his core focus is on management and growth of the firm. Mr. Karsenti is primarily responsible for the general direction of the firm’s investment strategy and overall capitalization. In this capacity, Mr. Karsenti’s role is one of new business origination, deal structuring, and investor relations. Mr. Karsenti has been active in the real estate business since 2003 when he began his real estate career assembling and developing land parcels in Miami’s urban cores. These initial one-off acquisitions led to the creation of 13th Floor in 2007, which has acquired, developed and managed over $1.5 billion in real asset value since inception. These transactions have ranged from property acquisitions to restructuring of distressed debt, fractured residential inventory, community district development bonds, and a host of joint venture structures. Prior to founding 13th Floor, Mr. Karsenti founded Collegeboxes, the nation’s leading college-based shipping and storage companies, which was acquired by U-Haul in 2004. Mr. Karsenti is an active member of the Young President’s Organization, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, and a variety of other local and national philanthropic organizations. Mr. Karsenti graduated cum laude from the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and holds an MBA from the Harvard School of Business.

Simon Ziff serves as president of Ackman-Ziff, a position he assumed in 1995. Since joining the firm as an Analyst in 1989, Simon has overseen the arrangement of 100+ billion of debt, mezzanine, and equity financings for some of the nation’s foremost real estate developers and owners while simultaneously solidifying the firm’s relationships with key capital sources. He engineered the firm’s unique, collaborative culture and directed AZ’s evolution as an industry thought leader with over 50 professionals.   Simon received a B.S. in Finance from The Pennsylvania State University and an M.S. in Real Estate Finance from NYU. He has been recognized on multiple occasions by Penn State and NYU, as well as being awarded REBNY’s first “Most Promising Commercial Salesperson” award, the “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year” award six times and winning the prestigious Louis Smadbeck award.   Simon has also been active in many leadership roles for universities and not-for-profit organizations. Simon has also been involved in teaching at University of Miami and NYU on families in Real Estate.   Most recently, Simon has been lecturing at many undergraduate and graduate programs including a course on Family Real Estate Business Management at NYU Schack.

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.