Frank Hartmann is a Senior Account Executive with Honest Buildings, a purpose-built platform for real estate owners to collaboratively track project costs, intelligently level bids and generate portfolio-wide insights. In his real estate career, more recently with CBRE, Frank has executed over 2 million square feet of transactions valued at more than $450.5 million. Frank received his B.A. in Economics from Loyola University of Chicago and an M.B.A. from Chicago Booth.

Current Responsibilities

Nikki Kern’s primary responsibilities include the leasing and marketing with her partners at 125 South Wacker (MetLife) and 10, 120 and 222 South Riverside Plaza and 440 South LaSalle (Behringer Harvard) in the West Loop, and 33 North Dearborn (Fulcrum Asset Advisors) in the Central Loop.

Experience

Nikki has worked in commercial real estate for nearly 14 years with seven of those years being at JLL. During the past seven years at JLL, she has completed over two million s.f. in transactions of varying sizes and levels of difficulty, including subleasing over 300,000 s.f. of space for Bank of America. She has experience leasing Class A trophy-style buildings as well as small boutique-style buildings. Prior to joining JLL, Nikki belonged to a team at Trizec Properties and leased a portfolio of 2.5 million s.f. of Class A property in the CBD with transactions totaling 1.4 million s.f.

Education and awards

Nikki graduated with honors from the University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana with a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Finance with a concentration in Real Estate. She is an active member of COLBA. She has also been selected in the past as a Finalist in the “Property Representative of the Year” category for the prestigious Greater Chicago Food Depository Awards.

Dan Lyne is a Senior Vice President within the Global Technology & Media Practice at CBRE, Inc.

A recognized leader in the Chicago business community, Dan represents tech, biotech and media companies, both large and small, on complex real estate transactions. His roster of clients includes: Spotify USA, Horizon Pharma, General Assembly, Modest LLC, Belly, Managed by Q, and Cards Against Humanity to name a few. Dan also represents some of Chicago’s premier owner/developers in bringing unique buildings and creative campuses to the market. As it is his passion, Dan has focused much of his career on addressing talent attraction via the need for transformational and world-class creative space.

Dan was a co-founder on the team that launched "1871" - a 75,000 square foot co-working center for digital startups located in Chicago’s famed Merchandise Mart. Two years later, Dan helped guide the initial formation of MATTER, a 25,000 square foot co-working venture dedicated to entrepreneurs focused on healthcare innovation.

For nearly a decade with Chicago’s business development arm, World Business Chicago (WBC), Dan led the targeting and management of corporate relocation and expansion projects for domestic and globally based technology firms. During his tenure, WBC was repeatedly recognized and awarded as one of the top international organizations in its field.

Dan was recently appointed by Governor Bruce Rauner to his Innovate Illinois Advisory Council, a key group of executives focused on advancing the economic growth strategy for the State of Illinois. Dan was also the founding Executive Director of ChicagoNEXT. Formed by WBC Chairman, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and Founding Co-Chairman, J.B. Pritzker, ChicagoNEXT’s primary mission is to further Chicago’s commitment to its innovation, entrepreneurship and tech industries.

PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Dan was named to the “Tech 50” list by Crain’s Chicago Business, recognizing leadership across Chicago’s landscape of tech entrepreneurs, hackers, investors and visionaries (2013).

The Illinois Technology Association awarded Dan the 13th Annual “CityLIGHTS” Award in recognition for his collaborative support of the Illinois technology community (2012).

Steve Levitas joined Newmark Grubb Knight Frank in 2016 as a vice chairman in the firm's Chicago office, where he focuses on all aspects of real estate advisory work for his clients including corporate services, tenant representation, workplace strategy development and implementation, site selection, property disposition and acquisition, financial analysis and modeling, deal negotiation and construction project management. He also has particular expertise in build-to-suit office, industrial and data center facilities.

Mr. Levitas brings to NGKF more than 18 years of real estate advisory experience. He most recently was a principal at Colliers International, where he specialized in advising commercial users of real estate on the acquisition and disposition of leased and owned real estate. Prior to Colliers, Mr. Levitas began his real estate career with The John Buck Company's Strategic Advisory Group, where he developed an extensive understanding of developer pro forma construction and financing models, which he uses as a benefit in executing real estate transactions on behalf of his clients.

Michael Sessa, an Executive Vice President in the Tenant Representation group of Cushman & Wakefield, has more than 24 years of real estate experience in Chicago and joined Cushman & Wakefield in January, 2016 from JLL. Since 2010, Mr. Sessa participated in transactions totaling more than ten million square feet for such clients as Toyota Motor Company, Mercedes-Benz, USA, Sears Holdings Corp., Bosch, The Northern Trust Company, Ecolab/Nalco, Health Care Service Corporation (parent company of BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma), American Medical Association, MillerCoors, Underwriters Laboratories and Mitsubishi.

Donald I. Resnick focuses his practice in commercial real estate on a national and local basis. Clients seek his counsel on all types of real estate transactions, financing, leasing, development and construction and corporate real estate needs. He also has significant experience in real estate-related loan and equity restructuring and workouts. Mr. Resnick is Chair of the Firm’s Real Estate Practice, Co-Chair of the Firm’s Real Estate Securities Practice, and Co-Chair of its Real Estate Finance Litigation and Workout Task Force.

Chambers USA has consistently named Mr. Resnick one of the country’s leading lawyers in real estate law. He was listed in Best Lawyers in America for real estate law, elected by his peers as an Illinois Super Lawyer in real estate transactions, and named a leading lawyer in real estate finance law and commercial real estate law in the Leading Lawyers Network survey of more than 52,000 Illinois lawyers. Mr. Resnick is AV Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest peer recognition for ethical standards and legal ability.

Mr. Resnick serves the firm as Co-Chair of the Business Services and Transaction Executive Committee and is a past member of the Management Committee. He has given seminars and written articles regarding various real estate issues including complex like-kind exchanges, real estate workouts and loan and equity restructures, dual agency for brokers and real estate contract negotiations. He has been a guest lecturer for the real estate program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He is also a member of the Chicago Central Area Committee, a group of civic leaders dedicated to the economic development of Chicago's downtown community.

R2 currently owns and operates more than 1.5 million square feet of real estate, primarily in Chicago and the Midwest, and its principals share deep industry experience, having transacted more than $1 billion in real estate investments on behalf of previous ownership structures in all major asset classes and investment strategies.

From 2007 to 2011, R2 principals built and eventually liquidated a highly successful student-housing platform at several major Midwestern universities. Since 2011, the R2 principals have consolidated more than one million square feet of creative office assets in Chicago and the Midwest, building a vertically integrated platform to manage all aspects of the investment process.

R2 is a widely experienced developer, having completed multi-family, mixed-use, retail, and office projects, and is currently developing two mixed-use developments on Chicago’s Goose Island that total more than 700,000 rentable square feet.

In addition to its core platform, R2 operates several discretionary funds to programmatically pursue its real estate investment strategies.

Jason Friedman leads Friedman Properties pursuit of new joint venture partnerships and development opportunities.

Prior to joining Friedman Properties, he practiced commercial real estate law at Kirkland and Ellis LLP and served as an adjunct professor of law at John Marshall Law School. Jason’s deep understanding of the real estate industry’s legal principles helps the firm navigate complex development projects.

Jason currently serves on the board of directors of the Jewish United Fund and is an active member of Young Presidents’ Organization. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and the Georgetown University Law Center. He lives in Lincoln Park with his wife and their three children.

John brings 30 years of real estate experience to Hubbard Street Group. Over his career, he has developed over $3 billion of institutional-grade commercial, residential and hotel properties across the country. John focuses his attention on HSG’s new development and investment activity in Chicago and other major markets.

John received a BBA and MBA from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

John loves traveling the world with his wife, friends and growing family. He enjoys road biking, skiing, golfing, hiking out west and good wine and food.

Mr. D’Arcy is a senior managing director and has been involved in headquarter development management projects for several companies. He also has been working on Hines equity developments, as well as multifamily projects, and on leading new business initiatives or projects. Mr. D’Arcy has been with the firm since 1998 and has also been responsible for assisting in the acquisition, leasing and development of several Chicago-area projects.

D'Arcy earned a BA in Political Science from Kenyon College.

Jason Burian is a partner in CohnReznick’s Chicago office and a member of the Firm’s Assurance Practice. He also leads the Commercial Real Estate Industry Practice in the Firm's Chicago office. Jason has 12 years of experience in public accounting, providing clients with audits, compilations, compliance, due diligence, agreed-upon procedures, and other accounting services. His clients include real estate operating companies, real estate syndicators, real estate investment funds, and real estate developers.

Jason specializes in the audits of commercial real estate entities, developments benefitting from the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), and employee benefit plans. He is responsible for many aspects of client engagements including planning, determining audit scope, identifying audit issues, selecting audit procedures to be applied, supervising staff, coordinating all fieldwork, establishing budgets, reviewing workpapers , facilitating client communications, and preparing financial statements or reports.

In addition to Jason’s client responsibilities, he develops programs and techniques specifically tailored to auditing commercial real estate entities for the Firm. He also takes an active role in developing staff, recruiting, scheduling initiatives, and leading the Chicago office’s efforts for the Firm’s volunteer and charity outreach.