Registration Questions

Call: 202-684-2034
Email: eventregistration@bisnow.com

Request Speaker Information

Speaker Topics

Tell us a Little More

Presented By

Speakers and Panels

Peter Bronsnick

Peter Bronsnick

EVP

SJP Properties

Kevin Collins

Kevin Collins

CFO

Lotus Equity Group

David Simson

David Simson

Vice Chairman

Newmark Knight Frank

Kevin Collins

CFO

Lotus Equity Group

Kevin Collins has more than three decades of experience in corporate and real estate finance and asset management. Prior to joining Lotus’ related company, C & K Properties, Mr. Collins worked for several notable NYC real estate firms, including Cross & Brown, MJ Raynes Real Estate, Property Resources Corp., and The Broadstone Group. Mr. Collins’ responsibilities in all instances included asset management and supervision of accounting and financial functions. Mr. Collins’ experience spans all aspects of the real estate spectrum including commercial office and residential asset and property management, residential development, and hospitality management in both the NYC market and several major markets across the US.

Since joining C & K Properties in 2000, Mr. Collins has overseen the asset management of over 5 million square feet of the firm’s asset holdings while also maintaining responsibility for all accounting and financial functions. C & K’s assets included multi-family residential, commercial office, industrial, and core urban retail properties located primarily in the NY/NJ metropolitan region. Mr. Collins has closed property related transactions totaling more than $1.5B in for the firm and more than $3.0B in his career.

Mr. Collins presently oversees Lotus Equity Group’s asset management department, including direct responsibility for the operations of 2 Gateway Center, Newark, NJ’s largest commercial office building.

Mr. Collins also serves as Lotus Equity Group’s liaison with various governmental and community organizations, serving as Chairman of the Board of the Newark Downtown District and as a member of the board of the Newark Regional Business partnership.

Mr. Collins holds a BS degree in Business Management from Fordham University.

David Simson

Vice Chairman

Newmark Knight Frank

David Simson joined Newmark Knight Frank in 2009 as vice chairman and chief operating officer for the New Jersey operation. Mr. Simson is charged with overseeing the region's professionals in strategic planning, consulting and leasing advisory services. In addition, Mr. Simson serves as a consultant on behalf of clients and assists with all brokerage relations within the state.

For the past 35 years, Mr. Simson has advised many of the largest corporations and owners in strategic planning for their real estate goals and objectives. He has been acknowledged as one of the leading brokers in New Jersey as an exclusive tenant representative. Mr. Simson has represented landlords as their exclusive agent for leasing or investment sales in excess of 200 million square feet of prime office space.

Prior to joining Newmark Knight Frank, Mr. Simson served as president and co-founder of GVA Williams of New Jersey and was head of operations for the 50-person company, which operated in partnership with GVA Worldwide. The operation completed in excess of $4.5 billion in transactions during his leadership.

Over the last seven years, NKF has acknowledged Mr. Simson as the firm's top producer for the entire United States twice, in 2010 and 2012.

Mr. Simson received the United Way 2017 Deal of the Year award for the 430,000-square-foot Allergan transaction in Madison. Mr. Simson has also received multiple NAIOP New Jersey Deal of the Year awards: 2016's mixed use award for the 142,700-square-foot Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Montvale; 2012's office award for the 270,000-square-foot Realogy headquarters transaction; and 2008's creative deal and impact award for the 173,000-square-foot Medicines Company world headquarters transaction.

In addition, in 2002 and 2003, Mr. Simson was honored with the Morris County Broker of the Year award for the successful transactions of 154,000 square feet on behalf of Pfizer, 139,538 square feet on behalf of Reckitt Benckiser and 53,984 square feet on behalf of Sordoni Construction.

Recently completed transactions include: 879,000 square feet in Bridgewater, New Jersey, on behalf of MetLife; a 430,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters lease for Allergan in Madison, New Jersey; 190,970 square feet for Spectra Laboratories headquarters; 141,000 square feet for Blackrock Corporation in Princeton, New Jersey; the consolidation of New Jersey offices for EisnerAmper for 87,000 square feet; a 65,000-square-foot headquarters for Ansell Corporation; and a consolidation of Lowenstein Sandler, LLP's New Jersey offices for 170,000 square feet. In addition, in 2015, Mr. Simson was the lead advisor in New Jersey for the opening of a state-of-the-art cancer treatment facility on behalf of Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Reinventing New Jersey's CRE Assets and Mixed-use Landscape

Ben Korman

Ben Korman

CEO and Founder

Lotus Equity Group

Jonathan Cortell

Jonathan Cortell

Managing Director, Northeast Markets

L&M Development Partners

Jeremy Neuer

Jeremy Neuer

Executive Vice President

CBRE

Jose Cruz

Jose Cruz

Senior MD

JLL

Timothy Greiner

Timothy Greiner

Executive Managing Director

JLL

Robert Rudin

Robert Rudin

Consulting Vice Chairman

Cushman & Wakefield

Grayson Murray
Moderator

Grayson Murray

Principal

Bohler Engineering

Ben Korman

CEO and Founder

Lotus Equity Group

A native Israeli who moved to the United States in 1985 and has garnered a vast amount of experience in all aspects of real estate since then. Mr. Korman started his career managing three ground-up condominium developments in New York City. In 1992, together with Meir Cohen, Mr. Korman created C&K Properties. Since inception, C&K Properties has owned and operated over five million square feet of office, residential, industrial and retail properties predominantly in New York City, but also in other major US central business districts. C&K continues to own over 3 million square feet of property. Mr. Korman led the company’s development efforts, most notably in Midtown South, where the company’s investments predated the transformation of that neighborhood into NYC’s version of Silicon Valley.

Jonathan Cortell

Managing Director, Northeast Markets

L&M Development Partners

Jonathan Cortell is a Managing Director at L+M Development Partners with a particular focus on extending the firm’s business beyond New York City. Since joining L+M in 2005, Jon has represented the firm on multiple transactions, and is working on mixed-income and mixed-use transactions in New Jersey, specifically in Downtown Newark and Jersey City. Prior to joining L+M, Jon was the Vice President and Director of Development at the New York State Housing Finance Agency (HFA). In 2015, Jon was the recipient of the Rising Star Award at the Multifamily Executive Awards. Jon has a BA and a MPA from Columbia University as well as a MBA from New York University’s Stern Business School.

Jeremy Neuer

Executive Vice President

CBRE

Jeremy Neuer is the co-lead for CBRE’s Capital Markets group in New Jersey—focusing on office

and industrial properties. After an 18-year leasing career, he transitioned to Capital Markets to

leverage his unique experience with respect to the workplace and how buildings need to change to

meet the needs of modern occupiers. His success in leasing, on both the occupier and landlord side,

gives Mr. Neuer a distinct perspective to drive asset value and provide comprehensive advisory to

owners and investors.

Since joining the Capital Markets group, he has worked with Vice Chairman, Jeff Dunne on

numerous successful assignments including the sale of 350-360 Mount Kemble Avenue in

Morristown and CenterPointe in Bridgewater.

Mr. Neuer previously represented five million square feet as exclusive broker to some of New

Jersey’s top landlords and is widely recognized as one of the state’s leading landlord agents. His

leasing assignments included several of New Jersey’s premier office buildings including: Two Tower

Center in East Brunswick, 379, 399, and 499 Thornall Street in MetroPark, and River|Centre in Red

Bank, to name a few. He also represented KABR in the sale of 200 Route 9 North in Manalapan to

Ray Catena Motors and the acquisition of 3 & 5 ADP Boulevard in Roseland.

Prior to joining CBRE, Mr. Neuer served as a Senior Director with Cushman & Wakefield. In 2009,

he was the recipient of Cushman & Wakefield’s Service Excellence Award, awarded to the

brokers/teams with the highest client survey scores. He is also an active blogger

(www.NeuerSpace.com) and is considered a thought leader in the CRE Tech sector.

Jose Cruz

Senior MD

JLL

Jose is a senior managing director and co-office head in the New Jersey office of JLL Capital

Markets, Americas. He joins JLL as part of the HFF acquisition and is a member of the firm’s

leadership committee. Jose specializes in investment advisory throughout New Jersey,

New York and Connecticut and also oversees the day-to-day operations of the firm’s New

Jersey office. During the course of his more than 25-year commercial real estate career,

he’s been involved in more than $62 billion of office, industrial, retail, multifamily and land

sales.

Jose started at HFF in March 2010. Before that, he was the executive director of Cushman &

Wakefield’s New York area investment sales group where he spent more than 17 years. He

began his real estate career as a real estate analyst at PaineWebber, UBS, Inc.

Timothy Greiner

Executive Managing Director

JLL

Timothy Greiner is an executive managing director for JLL’s New Jersey office market brokerage group. He provides corporate representation for both the acquisition and disposition of commercial real estate and manages strategic planning and site development activities. He is the agency lead in New Jersey.

Prior to joining JLL, Tim served as executive managing director with Newmark Knight Frank in New Jersey. Greiner negotiated more than 400 lease transactions totaling more than 8 million square feet.

Previously he was vice president of leasing for the Gale Company, where he oversaw the leasing portfolio in New Jersey, New York and Michigan.

One of the added values Tim brings to his clients is a thorough understanding of the Grow NJ tax credit incentive program. His team has helped develop the marketing strategy for landlords and the procurement of incentives for tenants of more than $500 million in tax credits in the past four years alone.

With two NAIOP deals of the year, and a national Corenet Deal of the year award for Economic Development Leadership Award, Tim is widely recognized as a top broker in his market. His team averages 115 transactions a year earning them recognition in in Northern NJ RE Forums “Top Broker” awards for Top Five Broker based on square footage leased, total number of transactions, and total value of leases.

Tim earned his Juris Doctor from Rutgers University and a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with a minor in business administration from Vanderbilt University.

He is an active member of the United Way of Northern New Jersey. He serves on the board of trustees and helps facilitate a real estate networking luncheon that has raised more than $2.7 million for local New Jersey charities.

Robert Rudin

Consulting Vice Chairman

Cushman & Wakefield

Robert Rudin has overall responsibility for the operations of Cushman & Wakefield’s Tri-State Consulting practice. The consulting practice is staffed by salaried employees with strong financial and project management skills. Core competencies of the group include: scenario planning, variance analysis, market analysis, book and cash comparative transaction models, a proprietary six sigma transaction methodology and Quality Functional Deployment (a quantitative tool for operational issues) amongst other tools for planning and implementing real estate transactions.

Over the course of his 30-year career, Robert has been involved in planning and implementing more than 15 million square feet of headquarters and regional office transactions, as well as numerous distribution and investment sales transactions. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, Robert was responsible for establishing two successful real estate brokerage companies in New Jersey as both a principal and senior executive in charge, with P&L responsibility. The first was Douglas Elliman Knight Frank, a joint venture with London’s Knight Frank Rutely, and the second was the Edward S. Gordon Company of New Jersey Inc., the predecessor company to both Insignia/ESG and CBRE in New Jersey. After the mergers, Robert remained as the senior executive in the office.

Robert serves on the Board of the Americas for Cushman & Wakefield. Robert has lectured at the New Jersey Society of CPA’s Education Foundation, the New Jersey State Bar Association and the MidAtlantic Real Estate Conference in support of the State’s licensing requirements for Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

Robert was responsible for launching the highly successful computer education workshop at the Boys and Girls Club of Newark, a prototype program for which he received the “Award for Caring.” He is also a former president of the Board of the Chad School in Newark, among other charitable endeavors.

Grayson Murray

Moderator

Bohler Engineering

As Principal-In-Charge of Bohler Engineering's New Jersey offices, Grayson has over 20 years of experience in site development consulting and project design for redevelopment projects ranging in size and sector. With an extensive knowledge of the regulatory processes in the State of New Jersey, he has consistently guided prominent projects in the commercial, industrial, retail, and residential industries from due diligence through construction. Grayson’s project team is currently managing multiple award winning redevelopment projects within the state, including The Crossings at Jefferson Park, a highly anticipated 525,000 SF office redevelopment in Whippany and Kearny Point, the two million SF revitalized corporate campus located on the Hackensack River.

Mulberry Commons Update: Giving New Life to Downtown Newark

Michael Sommer

Michael Sommer

Chief Development Officer

Kushner

Aisha Glover

Aisha Glover

President & CEO

Newark Alliance

Gabe Harris

Gabe Harris

Senior VP/Strategy

Prudential Center - Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment

Gabe Lopez

Gabe Lopez

Vice President

J+L

James Maggio, Jr.
Moderator

James Maggio, Jr.

Partner

Riker Danzig

Michael Sommer

Chief Development Officer

Kushner

Michael Sommer is Chief Development Officer at Kushner. In this role, Sommer oversees development and construction efforts throughout the Kushner portfolio. During his 25 years of real estate experience, Sommer has developed in excess of 8 million square feet of residential, retail and office assets. Most notably, Sommer has managed the development of 4,000+ residential units in New Jersey.

Prior to Kushner, Sommer was Senior Vice President of Development and Construction at Cedar Realty Trust, a NYSE listed retail REIT with a portfolio spanning from Washington, D.C. to Boston. Before Cedar, Sommer was Executive Vice President of Development at Edison Properties where he led the redevelopment of the award winning Ironside Newark in Newark, New Jersey. Sommer also served as Managing Director of Development at Advance Realty after having started his career at Premier Development.

Sommer earned an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Business from Lafayette College.

Aisha Glover

President & CEO

Newark Alliance

Aisha serves as the President & CEO of Newark Alliance, which plays a key role in leveraging the city's corporate and anchor communities' collective impact and helps carry out Mayor Ras J. Baraka's vision for inclusive economic growth.

Ms. Glover has over 15 years of experience as a convener, champion and agent for economic empowerment and social justice. She most recently served as the President & CEO of the Newark Community Economic Development Corporation, where she led the city's bid to attract Amazon's second headquarters, strengthened the small business ecosystem, introduced innovative programs that provided resources to women and minority entrepreneurs, supported over $4B in real estate development and led the attraction of corporations and businesses to the city.

Prior to joining the Newark team, Aisha served as the VP of External Affairs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation, the nonprofit organization that manages the city-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard, a national model for urban industrial development and job creation. There, she helped establish an exhibition and visitors center, oversaw strategic partnership development, community engagement, public affairs and fundraising and played a key role in supporting the Yard's growing economic development initiatives. Ms. Glover's impact there was informed by her tenure at the Center for the Urban Environment, New York City's largest provider of environmental education programs. There, she led a team that furthered the Center's environmental justice and education initiatives, helped create a local chapter of the nationally-recognized Small Business Alliance, and was instrumental in launching Green Brooklyn, the borough's first and largest sustainability event.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Hunter College of the City University of New York, a Masters of Public Administration from Baruch College of the City University of New York and an executive leadership certificate from the Columbia Business School, School of Social Enterprise.

James Maggio, Jr.

Moderator

Riker Danzig

James M. Maggio, Jr. is Counsel in Riker Danzig’s Real Estate Practice Group and is highly experienced in commercial real estate and related corporate transactions. His practice encompasses a wide variety of matters. Jim represents clients in complex commercial real estate matters, including joint ventures, primarily handling significant multimillion-dollar transactions. He has helped clients sell and acquire substantial commercial properties and to secure permanent and/or construction financing for the acquisition and/or development of significant office and industrial properties. Jim is also a member of the firm’s Financial Institutions Practice group and in that capacity has represented institutional lenders in complex financing transactions involving real estate. He also advises landlords and tenants in reviewing, negotiating and drafting office and industrial leases along with ancillary documents such as assignments, estoppels and subordination and non-disturbance agreements. In addition, he also regularly advises clients with respect to realty transfer taxes and the structuring of real property holdings.

Summary

1) What does the future of development in Newark look like?

2) Where is investment coming from?

3) What projects coming online will redefine Newark's commercial real estate market? 

 4) What does Newark's $7B Bid for Amazons HQ2 say about the state's economic development?

5) Are Newark office and retail developments able to keep up with the residential boom?

Venue

Prudential Center
165 Mulberry St
Newark, NJ 07102

Entrance: Ford Tower (on the corner of Mulberry St. and Lafayette St.)


Ford Parking Garage will be open for $7 parking on a first come first serve basis

Agenda

Time Activity
1:00 PM
2:00 PM
Breakfast & Networking
2:00 PM
2:45 PM
Reinventing New Jersey's CRE Assets and Mixed-use Landscape
2:45 PM
3:30 PM
Mulberry Commons Update: Giving New Life to Downtown Newark
3:30 PM
4:00 PM
Post-Panel Networking