Registration Questions

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

Request Speaker Information

Speaker Topics

Tell us a Little More

Speakers and Panels

Lisa Bevacqua

Lisa Bevacqua

Executive MD, Investor Portfolio Managment

CBRE

Lisa Bevacqua

Executive MD, Investor Portfolio Managment

CBRE

Lisa Bevacqua joined CBRE in 2024 and is Executive Managing Director, Investor Portfolio Management. In her role, Lisa is responsible for the strategic partnership and account, Brookfield Properties Operated by CBRE, leading a team of over 1,100 real estate professionals across Brookfield’s 70 million square foot North America office portfolio.

Prior to joining CBRE, Lisa Bevacqua was the Executive Vice President and Head of Asset Management at Silverstein Properties (SP), where she oversaw a $10 billion portfolio of office, multifamily, and life science properties. At SP, Lisa was responsible for overseeing execution of the investment strategy for all properties in the portfolio and managing investor relationships. She served on the company’s investment committee, management team, and diversity and inclusion committee.

Prior to joining Silverstein Properties, Lisa worked in acquisitions and asset management at Citi Property Investors (CPI), a real estate opportunity fund with over $600 million of assets under management. At CPI, Lisa was responsible for underwriting and conducting due diligence on $1.8 billion of real estate transactions. In addition, Lisa oversaw a portfolio of office, condo and land assets. Prior to CPI, Lisa was a leasing broker at CB Richard Ellis/Whittier Partners, with a focus on the downtown Boston office market.

Lisa began her career as a consultant at Accenture, where she worked on assignments aimed at identifying and implementing process and operational improvements at financial services companies.

Lisa earned an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated magna cum laude with a BA from Boston College. Lisa, her husband, and their four children, live in Westport, CT.

Increasing Housing Supply & Incentivizing New York City Development Activity

Developer Incentives, Speeding up Approval Process & Creative Ways to Add Units

Richard Coles

Richard Coles

Managing Partner

VanBarton Group

Martin Nussbaum

Martin Nussbaum

Co-Founder, Principal

Slate Property Group

Basha Gerhards

Basha Gerhards

Senior Vice President of Planning

Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)

Brooks McDaniel

Brooks McDaniel

SVP, Building Repositioning

STO Building Group

Michael Capozzi
Moderator

Michael Capozzi

Partner

Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti LLP

Martin Nussbaum

Co-Founder, Principal

Slate Property Group

Martin Nussbaum is the co-founder and principal at Slate Property Group. He has over twenty years of experience buying, developing and operating real estate across the United States. He currently oversees the strategic visionary behind the business platform, investment decisions and overall operations of the company. With a focus on multifamily and mixed-use properties, Martin leads strategic repositioning, ground-up development and conversion projects.

Under Martin’s leadership, Slate has remained an active lender in the New York metropolitan real estate market with over $1 billion in loans closed and $300 million in the pipeline. Many of these deals came through Slate’s active lending affiliate called SCALE Lending, a direct lender providing first mortgage financing secured by commercial real estate assets with a focus on senior transitional loans. SCALE leverages off the Slate platform to guide investment decisions and assess the valuation of collateral, including land acquisition, construction, new development, re-development, inventory and assets with a lease-up or reposition component. It has more than $2 billion spread across 4.2 million square feet in ongoing developments.

Prior to co-founding Slate Property Group, Martin served as the co-founder and managing partner of Silverstone Property Group, a full-service real estate owner and operator in New York. While overseeing Silverstone, he purchased more than $1 billion in real estate assets. Earlier in his career, Martin worked for a family office based in New Jersey overseeing a portfolio of over 5,000 apartments and three million square feet of commercial property throughout the tri-state area. He started his career in real estate investment banking working at Wells Hill Partners.

Martin received a Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York Albany.

Basha Gerhards

Senior Vice President of Planning

Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY)

Basha is focused on topics related to housing, land use, zoning, resiliency, and community development. Previously, Basha served as a senior land use advisor to Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. Prior to that, Basha worked at City of New York’s Department of City Planning. She has an M.S. in Urban Planning from Columbia University GSAPP and holds a B.F.A. in Historic Preservation, with a concentration in Urban Design & Development, from the Savannah College of Art & Design.

Brooks McDaniel

SVP, Building Repositioning

STO Building Group

As Senior Vice President of Building Repositioning, Brooks McDaniel provides overall direction and leadership to STOBG’s Building Repositioning Group. He works closely with the NYC-based executive leadership for Pavarini McGovern and Structure Tone to develop long-range strategic plans to help establish STOBG as an expert in building repositioning, particularly in the NYC market, as well as work with leadership across the organization to best leverage the company’s expertise in this important sector.

Brooks was previously Vice President of Design & Development at Extell Development

Company, where he was responsible for the design of millions of square feet of residential,

commercial office, hotels, retail, and educational buildings. Prior to working at Extell, Brooks

was a project director at SHoP Architects in New York, where he worked on various cultural,

residential, and institutional projects. Earlier in his career, he also worked as an architect at

Asymptote Architecture, Davis Brody Bond, and Roger Ferris & Partners. A registered architect, Brooks earned undergraduate degrees in management and in marketing from Lehigh University and a master’s of architecture from Parsons New School in New York.

Michael Capozzi

Moderator

Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti LLP

Michael D. Capozzi’s practice encompasses all aspects of New York and New Jersey commercial and residential landlord-tenant and real estate litigation. He has extensive trial experience and manages an array of commercial real estate and landlord-tenant matters, including those involving lease violations, declaratory judgments, breach of contract, contract enforcement, and Yellowstone injunctions.

Michael also has significant experience in negotiating and drafting complex settlement agreements. Throughout his career, Michael has litigated matters before the state and federal courts of New York and New Jersey.

Prior to joining Ingram, Michael worked as an associate attorney for the Law Offices of John C. Lane, as well as Law Offices of Charles H. Gruen.

Making New York City More Affordable Across the Five Boroughs

Balancing the Differing Housing Needs for all New Yorkers

Frank Monterisi

Frank Monterisi

EVP

Related

Ty Barnes

Ty Barnes

MD, Affordable/Workforce Housing

Tishman Speyer

Spencer Orkus

Spencer Orkus

Partner, President, Development

L+M Development Partners

Liz Oakley

Liz Oakley

Executive Vice President, Affordable Development

Douglaston Development

Brian Cook

Brian Cook

Principal

Capalino

Emanuel Kokinakis

Emanuel Kokinakis

Principal and Development Manager

Mega Contracting Group

Ericka Keller
Moderator

Ericka Keller

CEO and Managing Member

Brisa Builders Development LLC

Spencer Orkus

Partner, President, Development

L+M Development Partners

Spencer Orkus is a Partner and the President of Development at L+M Development Partners who has been with the company since 2007. He has developed over 5,000 affordable new construction units within various mixed-use new construction projects compiling over $2.5 billion in financing resources.

Spencer leads L+M’s efforts to provide housing that is healthy, energy-efficient, and resilient to climate change. He is passionate about the intersection of housing, healthcare and food access, partnering with various healthcare providers, food-oriented social justice enterprises and other non-profits. He has led L+M’s venture into the new era of sustainable construction, having completed our first passive house project with geothermal heating/cooling and NYC’s first net-zero community in the pipeline.

Prior to joining L+M, Spencer worked as a licensed structural engineer for DeSimone Consulting Engineers designing high-rise residential buildings and other structures. He has a BA and MA in Architectural Engineering from Penn State University and an MA in Real Estate from New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. He is co-chair of the NYSAFAH policy committee, a board member of New York Passive House and serves on the Hastings on Hudson waterfront zoning committee.

Emanuel Kokinakis

Principal and Development Manager

Mega Contracting Group

As a principal and development manager, Emanuel Kokinakis oversees all aspects of Mega

Development’s operations and pipeline. Since joining Mega, Emanuel has worked with Mega’s executive management team, gaining a vast knowledge of the company’s construction operations and the building process. Emanuel applied this experience along with his passion for the design process and finance to expand Mega’s development arm. Emanuel is responsible for the deal sourcing, acquisitions, design development, financing, general construction oversight, marketing and lease-up of Mega Development’s projects. Emanuel has placed nearly 800 units into service, has currently 700 units in construction and secured another 2,000 units in predevelopment with a total executed transaction volume more than $1B. These projects feature complex financing and deal structures and are over a wide range of multi-family mixed-use asset classes, including commercial properties, rentals and condominiums. Over his time at Mega, Emanuel has developed a passion for affordable and supportive housing and has worked with the industry’s agencies, funders and not-for-profits to execute innovative projects.

Ericka Keller

Moderator

Brisa Builders Development LLC

Ericka Keller built upon the second generation family business Brisa Builders Corp’s history as a HUD 202 General Contractor that built senior housing for faith-based sponsors by opening her own company in 2016, Brisa Builders Development LLC.

Brisa Builders Development LLC is an organization focused specifically on the development of affordable housing with faith-based organizations and church partners. Brisa Builders Development LLC has closed over 450 million dollars of affordable housing units with more than 108,575 sq. ft. of commercial/retail and community facility spaces, all with faith-based partners since the company’s inception in 2016. The company currently has over 1,150 units of deeply affordable housing in predevelopment in NYC including 233 units as the selected developer for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Brownsville RFP- Site B. In 2019, she partnered with a colleague to expand the business outside of the NYC metropolitan area by forming Brisa Development LLC, Brisa was the winner of the City of Chicopee, Massachusetts Baskin Site in 2020 and the 24-acre Carriage Grove site in Belchertown, Massachusetts in 2021 as well as purchaser of properties in Rhode Island and Maine. Ericka has received several awards and citations including the New York State Association of Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH) 2021 M/WBE of the Year and 2021 Crain’s Notable Business Woman Recognition. Ericka also provides an annual scholarship to young men from Brooklyn, pursuing college with an entrepreneurial spirit, in honor of her late father, Thomas B. Keller.

Financing Outlook: Deal Flow & Weighing Investor Confidence

Investing in New York vs. Suburbs & Other Hot Markets

Brooke Richartz

Brooke Richartz

Managing Director

JP Morgan Chase

Brett Meringoff

Brett Meringoff

Managing Partner, Development

Fairstead

John Gilmore

John Gilmore

SVP and Managing Director

Walker & Dunlop

John Motzel

John Motzel

Senior Managing Director

Newpoint Real Estate Capital

Morris Betesh

Morris Betesh

Senior Managing Director

Meridian Capital Group

Rashid Walker
Moderator

Rashid Walker

CEO & Founder

First Street Capital

Brett Meringoff

Managing Partner, Development

Fairstead

As Managing Partner, Brett Meringoff’s responsibilities include leading the company’s acquisitions and development activities, with a focus on large-scale redevelopment and mixed-income housing, as well as the strategic direction of the company.

Prior to joining Fairstead, Brett was Senior Vice President and development partner at WinnDevelopment, one of the oldest and largest affordable housing developers in the country. Under Brett’s leadership, projects entitled, in development and completed, totaled more than 4,900 units in 19 properties. At the time of his departure, there were 5 projects totaling nearly 1,000 units in the predevelopment pipeline.

In 2019, Brett was appointed by Governor Northam to the Board of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. He also currently serves on the Board of the Latin American Youth Center in Washington DC, which has been providing educational and recreational programs for youths in the DC metropolitan area for nearly 50 years. Brett previously served on the Green/Energy Committee of the National Leased Housing Association, the Young Leaders Education Committee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), DC Real Estate Group, the Executive Committee of the University of Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic Regional Advisory Board (MARAB), and as a ULI Mentor. Brett received a Bachelor Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.

John Gilmore

SVP and Managing Director

Walker & Dunlop

Senior Vice President and Managing Director John Gilmore brings more than a decade of commercial real estate experience to Walker & Dunlop’s Multifamily Finance Group. Mr. Gilmore is focused on the affordable multifamily space and has extensive experience sourcing loans for execution through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Mr. Gilmore is also highly experienced in complex deal structures including structured credit facilities, tax-exempt bonds, and federal and state tax credits.

Prior to joining Walker & Dunlop, Mr. Gilmore was a Vice President and Senior Relationship Manager in the Community Development and Investment group within KeyBank Real Estate Capital. While at KeyBank, he was a member of the management team tasked with expanding the bank’s affordable housing activity to all 50 states. He originated almost $1 billion of new mortgage debt in this position. Mr. Gilmore served many additional functions throughout his career at KeyBank, including working in the bank’s Income Property Group, Asset Recovery Group, and Private Equity Group. Mr. Gilmore began his career in the commercial real estate industry at Hartford Mezzanine Investors, LLC, where he was responsible for structuring real estate investment transactions for various levels of the capital structure with a primary focus on mezzanine positions.

Mr. Gilmore attended Morehouse College where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in finance and a minor in economics with cum laude honors. Beyond the company, he is active in industry associations and is a member of the MBA’s Affordable Rental Housing Advisory Council as well as the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Affordable & Workforce Housing Product Council. Mr. Gilmore also serves on the board of Bridge Street Development Corporation and the steering committee of the Real Estate Associates Program.

John Motzel

Senior Managing Director

Newpoint Real Estate Capital

John Motzel is a Senior Managing Director on the NewPoint Originations team. He joined NewPoint with the company’s acquisition of Barings Multifamily Capital. With more than 25 years of agency lending experience, Motzel has originated in excess of $8 billion in multifamily loans. Prior to Barings, Motzel worked at Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, where he served as a Senior Vice President. Previously, he was a Senior Vice President at Capmark and held the same position at GMAC Commercial Mortgage.

Motzel is a graduate of Villanova University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Management.

Morris Betesh

Senior Managing Director

Meridian Capital Group

Mr. Betesh joined Meridian Capital Group in May 2017, where he leads an eight-member team. Prior to joining Meridian, he served as a Director at Cushman & Wakefield Capital Markets and a Director of Capital Services at Massey Knakal Realty Services. To date, Mr. Betesh has financed over 500 buildings across the United States and has closed well in excess of over $5 billion in transactions throughout his career. Previously, Mr. Betesh was a Portfolio Manager at a private family office, where he managed a portfolio of properties in Midtown Manhattan and was principally responsible for restructuring and developing the portfolio, in addition to directly leasing the properties and managing the finances at a corporate level. Mr. Betesh attended Brooklyn College, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Finance and was honored with the Brooklyn College Presidential Scholarship.

Keynote: Partnerships to Increase Affordable Housing

Alicia Glen on the Future of New York Multifamily

Alicia Glen
Keynote

Alicia Glen

Founder, Managing Principal

MSquared

Andrea Kretchmer
Keynote

Andrea Kretchmer

Principal

Xenolith Partners

Anita Laremont
Moderator

Anita Laremont

Partner

Fried Frank

Alicia Glen

Founder, Managing Principal

MSquared

Alicia Glen is the Founder and Managing Principal of MSquared, a nationwide real estate development and investment platform creating the next generation of mixed-use, mixed-income projects in rapidly growing and increasingly unaffordable cities and metro regions. Alicia is the former New York City Deputy Mayor and a nationally recognized expert in urban development, infrastructure finance, job creation, and housing policy.

As Deputy Mayor from 2014 to 2019, Alicia was the architect of “Housing New York” – the largest housing plan in the nation – and developed and financed over 125,000 affordable homes, shattering all previous records. She also created “NYCHA 2.0,” a stabilization and modernization plan to generate $24 billion in funds for renovations and essential capital repairs across NYCHA’s portfolio by converting units to private management and building new mixed-income projects.

She also launched the largest municipal ferry system in the United States; initiated large scale planning efforts on the Long Island City waterfront, Sunnyside Yard and Governors Island; negotiated the expansion of Google’s NY campus, spearheaded the rezoning of the Garment District and East Midtown; established the Tech Talent Pipeline for the life sciences and technology sectors; and repositioned the City’s industrial assets to support modern manufacturing and film and TV production.

Prior to serving as Deputy Mayor, Alicia was Head of the Urban Investment Group (UIG) at Goldman Sachs and co-led the firm’s 10,000 Small Businesses initiative. Under her leadership, UIG catalyzed more than $5 billion of mixed-use development in cities across the country through equity, debt, and tax investment vehicles. UIG also invested in and structured innovative public-private partnerships, including the first domestic Social Impact Bond, CitiBike bike share, “New Lab” in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the headquarters of the National Dance Institute at P.S. 90, and Teacher's Village in Newark, NJ.

From 1998-2001, Alicia served as the Assistant Commissioner for Housing Finance at the NYC Department of Housing, Preservation and Development. An attorney who practiced at several national law firms in their real estate groups, she began her career at Brooklyn Legal Services.

Alicia is the current Chair of the Trust for Governors Island and Chair of women.nyc. She is also an advisor to the Terner Center for Housing and Innovation at UC Berkeley and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School.

Alicia received a BA from Amherst College and a law degree from Columbia University.

Andrea Kretchmer

Principal

Xenolith Partners

Andrea Kretchmer is a developer of affordable housing and mixed-use projects in New York and Connecticut. Andrea is a founding principal at Xenolith Partners LLC, a woman-owned affordable housing development company. At Xenolith, Andrea focuses on new construction of mixed-use developments. Her interests include cultivating for-profit and non-profit partnerships; government, community and industry relations; and the pursuit of municipally-owned development sites.

Prior to starting Xenolith, Andrea was also a founding principal of The Kretchmer Companies LLC, a woman-owned affordable housing development firm based in New York City and spent several years with a mixed-use developer based in Westchester County. With those firms, Andrea completed the development of Coney Island Commons and Stanley Commons, both 200,000+ sf mixed-use projects with large community facility spaces including a 43,000 sf YMCA. Andrea’s Connecticut experience includes the adaptive re-use of a historic mill in Stonington, CT and an award-winning 80-unit mixed-income Passive House development in New Britain, CT,

Prior to her career in affordable housing, Andrea was a practicing geologist. She has extensive experience in the investigation and remediation of contaminated sites throughout the New York metropolitan area. Her experience includes a wide scope of soil, surface water, ground water and ecological investigations. Andrea brings the unique combination of brownfield and real estate development to her projects.

Andrea received her Bachelor’s Degree from Colgate University and her Master’s Degree in Geology from UCLA. Andrea is the Membership Chair and a Board Member at the New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH) and at Congregation Rodeph Sholom. Andrea is also a Fellow at the Urban Design Forum. Her past board services includes Citizens Housing and Planning Council, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the Bronx Real Estate Summit and the New York City Brownfield Partnership.

Anita Laremont

Moderator

Fried Frank

Anita Laremont advises clients on various land use, zoning, and development

matters.

Anita has worked with numerous large-scale economic development and land-use

projects in New York City and throughout the state.

Prior to joining Fried Frank, Anita was the Chair of the New York City Planning

Commission and Director of the Department of City Planning, having previously served

as its general counsel and executive director. She also served for many years as

general counsel of Empire State Development Corporation.

Anita received her JD from New York University School of Law in 1979 and her

BA, magna cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College in 1976. She is admitted to

practice in New York.

Featured Projects

MSquared's Inwood Development: Joint Venture project featuring 698-united mixed-income multifamily project

Vanbarton's Fidi Office to Resi Conversion at 160 Water Street

Slate Property Group Multifamily Portfolio

New York City Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force

Related's Multifamily Projects: Willets Point Affordable Housing Towers

Tishman Speyer Multifamily Portfolio

Reasons to Attend

What You'll Learn:

  • Developers and investors weigh in on which boroughs are most conducive to building and leasing multifamily developments.

  • What does investor confidence look like for New York multifamily? Is it still the darling asset class of the city?  

  • In the wake of 421-a ending, what is the city looking to do to incentivize more development? Additionally, what will it take for developers to tackle more ground up multifamily developments? 

  • What does supply and demand look like across luxury versus market rate versus affordable housing?

How you'll do more business:

Hear from developers, investors, city officials and capital providers on the future of multifamily development and investment activity. Furthermore, learn how the industry is increasing housing supply, prioritizing affordability as well as attracting and keeping multifamily investment in the city vs. other competing markets. 

Who attends:

Investors, owners, developers, lenders, brokers, lawyers, city officials, housing advocates, consultants, property managers and more! 

Why should you attend:

Bisnow events bring together the biggest power players in the industry to identify opportunities, build your network, and expand your business. With the largest audience of commercial real estate professionals in the world, no one knows how to help your business more than us.

For questions, recommendations, comments, or press inquiries please email our New York Events Producer, Chris Picher at chris.picher@bisnow.com. 

Venue

NY Bar Association
42 W 44th St
New York, NY 10036

Floor: 2nd Floor


Get Directions

Agenda

Time Activity
12:00 PM
1:00 PM
Coffee, Breakfast & Networking
1:00 PM
1:20 PM
Keynote: Partnerships to Increase Affordable Housing
1:20 PM
2:05 PM
Increasing Housing Supply & Incentivizing New York City Development Activity

1. Closer look at how the city and local government are partnering to get more developments underway.
2. What will be the impact of no 421-a substitute?

2:05 PM
2:50 PM
Making New York City More Affordable Across The Five Boroughs

1. Development outlook across the five boroughs. Where do people want to live and why?
2. What is attracting developers to build in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx?

2:50 PM
3:35 PM
Financing Outlook: Deal Flow & Weighing Investor Confidence

1. What types of housing are investors most bullish on?
2. What part of the capital stack is most difficult to secure at the moment?
3. Are New York investors looking to other markets? If that's the case, what is the impact and will it continue?

3:35 PM
3:45 PM
Networking