Queens & Long Island City State of the Market

Andrew Steiker-Epstein is VP of Sales / Leasing and Marketing for Charney Companies. As an experienced real estate agent and investor, with a specific focus on value-add property and ground-up projects, Andrew delivers an important skill-set to his role in development. With a keen ability to identify value, underwrite transactions, and optimize sales strategy, he’s established himself as an excellent complement to his colleagues. Formerly a real estate agent with Compass, one of the largest and fastest-growing brokerages in New York City, Andrew helped close over $50,000,000 in gross sales during a two-year span. He also holds the position of board president in a Brooklyn condo and co-op respectively where he manages building finances and maintenance while maximizing value for owners. Andrew holds a bachelor’s degree from Bates College and studied real estate finance at Baruch College. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York.

Marko Kazanjian is a Managing Director in the New York office of JLL Capital Markets, Americas. He specializes in raising debt and equity for institutional and private property owners. In the last seven years with JLL, Marko has directly executed debt and equity placement in excess of $6 billion. In 2019, Mr. Kazanjian was named Top 20 Commercial Mortgage Brokers under 35-years old. In 2016, he was named New York’s YMBA Rising Star. Most recently, he has placed loans ranging from $10 million to $500 million. These financing included value add multifamily assets, transitional industrial, construction of multifamily—both condos and rentals, mixed-use development, condo inventory, hospitality, transitional office, and many more. Given his network in capital advisory, Marko has contributed multiple sources of financing to JLL’s large pool of lending relationships. Prior to joining JLL in January 2016, Marko worked with the Meridian Capital Group, where he specialized in small to middle-market ($5M-$50M) capital raises across all asset classes. Over the course of his career, Marko has worked on complicated structures, including ground leases and high leveraged development loans, common equity, preferred equity, and senior debt.

Donovan Richards Jr., a lifelong resident of Southeast Queens, was elected Borough President in November 2020 and sworn in one month later. As a child, he attended Jamaica High School and Redemption Christian Academy before studying communications, radio, and TV at Nyack College. He later received a degree in Aviation Management from Vaughn College in East Elmhurst. Following the tragic killing of a close friend during his teenage years, the Borough President got involved in his community and the fight against gun violence, holding numerous positions in the City Council before being elected in 2013 to represent District 31, serving Southeast Queens and the eastern Rockaway Peninsula. As a Council Member, he chaired influential committees on Environmental Protection and Public Safety, while also leading the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, resulting in historic citywide investments in affordable housing, police oversight, clean energy and infrastructure — including a $2 billion investment in new sewer and water infrastructure to alleviate chronic flooding issues across Southeast Queens. As Queens Borough President, he has been a tireless advocate for The World’s Borough. Over the course of his administration, Borough President Richards has allocated more than $100 million dollars across Queens’ schools, cultural institutions, hospitals, libraries, parks and more. In the wake of Hurricane Ida, the Borough President formed Operation Urban Sustainability to combat climate change, while continuing to push for the installation of new grey and green infrastructure to make Queens a more resilient borough. To better support the more than 1 million immigrants who call The World’s Borough home, he created the Immigrant Welcome Center at Queens Borough Hall in 2021, which has served hundreds of individuals over its first two years. To help rebuild the Queens economy, Borough President Richards created the Queens Small Business Grant program to connect Queens entrepreneurs impacted by COVID-19 with more than $15 million in no-strings grants, while also securing a commitment from JetBlue to keep its headquarters in Queens and overseeing the massive redevelopments of both LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. The Borough President has also empowered numerous historically disadvantaged communities through initiatives such as the Youth and Young Adult Council, Downtown Jamaica Improvement Council, the Queens Tech + Innovation Challenge and Borough Hall on Your Block, as well as task forces to support the communities of Corona and College Point. Borough President Richards lives in Rosedale with his wife, Tameeka, and his son, Donovan III.

As Vice President, Development at Silverstein Properties, Jamison Divoll is responsible for overseeing activities on Silverstein’s ground up development projects. Most recently Jamison has been leading the firm’s efforts on Innovation QNS, a 5 block, 3 million square foot master plan in Astoria, Queens and a 334-unit multi-family development in Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition, he has worked on other Silverstein development projects including Four Seasons Hotel and Residence, New York Downtown, 44-01 Northern Boulevard, and the Disney Headquarters in Hudson Square. Prior to joining Silverstein, Jamison was a Project Manager at H. Carr & Sons, a General Trades Contractor operating throughout New England where he worked on projects in the Commercial Office, Healthcare, Hospitality and Government sectors. Jamison holds a B. S. in Management Engineering from Worcester Polytech Institute and a M.S. in Real Estate Development from New York University. Formerly the co-chair of the New York City chapter of NAIOP Student Affairs Committee and currently an active member of Urban Land Institute.

A sought after voice in Queens real estate, Eric Benaim’s entry into real estate began in 2001, after a successful career as owner of a live event production and marketing firm. Initially concentrating on Manhattan luxury sales, Eric later recognized the untapped opportunity in his own beloved borough, and turned his focus exclusively to Long Island City. The result was the sale of 50 residences in 2006 alone. In the midst of 2008’s severe economic crisis, Eric instinctively decided the time was right to launch Modern Spaces, permanently changing the perception and value of real estate in LIC. In just 10 years, Eric’s insightful and personal approach resulted in the swift expansion of Modern Spaces, including opening additional offices in Astoria where 100 agents work, capturing a 70% market share in Long Island City. In 2019, Modern Spaces crossed the river to capture 10% of the burgeoning market share over the next three years, in Jersey City. He is responsible for successfully completing over $7B in sales and is currently responsible for overseeing over $4B in real estate, which translates to over 8000 units. Eric was the first person to be recognized as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star in both Queens and Brooklyn by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, respectively. Eric has been the recipient of the 2018 Community Impact Award by the LIC Partnership, as well as the Community Hero award by the Long Island City YMCA. Eric is a member of REBNY, and serves on the Advisory Board of Mount Sinai Hospital, as well as the Board of Directors for the Long Island City Partnership. In 2016 the City and State Award honored him for Corporate Social Responsibility. Eric is consistently called upon to speak at a diverse array of events and is frequently featured, quoted, interviewed and profiled in prominent outlets including CNN, Fox Business, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CRAIN’S, The Real Deal, CNBC, and NY1. Eric is an art collector and avid supporter of the arts. As the informal ‘Mayor of LIC,’ it is his passion for building a prosperous community that informs Modern Spaces ‘unparalleled perspective. He currently resides in Long Island City with his wife Stephanie and son Greyson.

Julie Greenberg has more than two decades of experience as a government and public affairs specialist. As Executive Vice President at Kasirer since 2002, Julie coordinates with Suri Kasirer to oversee the strategy for every client across the Kasirer portfolio, works across the firm’s teams and leadership to ensure seamless coordination and leveraging of our internal resources to achieve the goals of clients, and manages some of the firm’s most complex assignments, coordinating with City Hall and negotiating multiagency approvals. She began her career as a legislative analyst with the New York State assembly speaker’s office. She went on to serve as chief of staff to then-assembly member (now New York City Comptroller) Scott Stringer and as NYC political director for the 2002 McCall-Mehiel gubernatorial campaign. As Stringer’s chief of staff, Julie was responsible for creating and supervising a full-scale, cross-channel legislative, communications, and media relations strategy—everything from analyzing local impact to placing national op-eds. In her other governmental and political capacities, Julie developed an intimate knowledge of the inner workings of New York on both city and state levels. Julie’s success in navigating government regulatory and administrative procedures on behalf of our real estate clients include environmental and zoning appeals, ULURP, building code approvals and tax issues. For our nonprofit clients, she delivers highly specialized knowledge of the rules and regulations governing capital and expense funding and the role of cultural institutions in the public arena. Julie is a graduate of the State University of New York at Albany, where she earned a BA in History and Political Science as well as a master’s degree in Political Science.

Emily Zhu is an integrated marketing strategist specializing in real estate development, private equity, and startups. Currently, Zhu serves as the Head of Marketing Strategy at New Empire Corp., a cutting-edge New York City based development and construction management firm. In this role, she applies her years of experience in development marketing and sales to New Empire Corp.’s over 120 projects in Manhattan and its surrounding boroughs. Zhu has helped launch more than $500 million worth of new real estate projects in New York City each year and has led each project to become the number one selling or the top performing in sales volume project in each of the last three years. Before joining the New Empire Corp. team, Zhu worked for an EB-5 regional center where between 2015 and 2019, she raised more than $100 million in EB-5 capital from a diverse range of investors from China, Brazil, India, UAE, Turkey, and Vietnam.

Sergey’s lifelong passion has always been to build. He founded RYBAK Development immediately after graduating from New York University, starting the company from scratch while continuing his real estate development education as a post-grad. What began with a modest 6 unit condominium property in South Brooklyn has evolved over the years into a trend-setting, industry-leading firm, with Sergey staying hands-on throughout each and every project. During that span, Sergey has managed the construction of Brooklyn’s largest multi-sporting facility, featured as an Industry Executive of the Month by New York Real Estate Journal, and managed RYBAK Development’s growth while keeping the firm agile to increase profits, not overhead. As a RYBAK Principal, Sergey personally guarantees all project completions and project debt where applicable.

Overseeing all market research and analysis for a variety of projects in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, Laura consults on all aspect of pre-development planning including pricing, floor plan, finish and amenity recommendations to maximize sales velocity and sellout for each project. She formulates custom market reports and studies for mixed-use developments to educate clients and their financing institutions. Her advisory has been key to the success of many important new developments throughout her career, including The Cortland (555 West 22nd Street), One Wall Street, 200 Amsterdam, 99 Hudson, Rose Hill (30 East 29th Street), 42 Crosby Street, and The Fitzroy (514 West 24th Street), Laura’s research has proven an essential decision-making tool for best-in-class global and local developers, including Related Companies, China Overseas America, JDS, Brookfield Properties, and more. Through comprehensive market analysis on market trends, pricing strategies, valuation studies, and absorption schedules, Laura helps clients optimize assets in the luxury real estate industry and provides transparency about market trends to national and trade media as well as the public at large. The data and reports she leads have been published in leading publications such as The New York Times, The Real Deal, Crain’s New York Business, and many others. Laura has worked in development research and consulting for over ten years. She was previously the Senior Economist at the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), monitoring all New York City economic trends, real estate policy, real estate development patterns and both studies the economic behavioral patterns of New Yorkers in regards to purchase and sales activity, retail activity, leasing activity and more. Laura has degrees in Economics and Communications from Northeastern University. She serves as the Real Estate Lead on the Governance Committee for the Board of Trustees for Brooklyn RISE Charter Schools. In her free time, Laura is a passionate Pittsburgh Penguins fan as well as a travel enthusiast, She enjoys being on the water, hiking, cooking and exploring new restaurant and studio openings in New York.

Mr. Schechtman leads the Middle Market Team of Meridian Investment Sales as a Senior Executive Managing Director, overseeing a team of originators, analysts and other professionals. Mr. Schechtman is widely recognized as one of the industry’s most visible and well-respected investment sales professionals. Trained for years at one of the world’s largest law firms, Mr. Schechtman has personally sold more than 790 deals representing more than $8 billion in his fifteen-year career to date. Recognized as an industry “Titan,” “Power Broker”, “Jack of all Trades” and one of the “25 Most Visible New York City Real Estate Players” by the Commercial Observer, The Mann Report and The Real Deal, respectively, Mr. Schechtman is regularly engaged by private families, institutions, lenders, estate lawyers and their counsel and advisors to value, market and see through to closing the sale of multifamily properties, development sites, buildings ripe for repurposing, retail condominiums and co-ops, unsold shares, and loft office and industrial buildings throughout New York City. Mr. Schechtman has also represented more than 25 lenders in the disposition of performing and defaulted notes and assets in Chapter 11, Section 363 Sales. Prior to joining Meridian, he held the position of Principal and Executive Managing Director at Eastern Consolidated, where he was named “Broker of the Year” on multiple occasions. Prior to Eastern, Mr. Schechtman was a practicing attorney at DLA Piper in New York, where he specialized in commercial and property-related bankruptcy and litigation. Mr. Schechtman holds a J.D. from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and a B.A. from University of Delaware. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Committee of the Real Estate Board of New York and several other boards and charities. He is a frequent guest lecturer at Columbia University, the Real Estate Board of New York and law firms throughout the tri-state area on foreclosure and bankruptcy asset sales.

Adam Kriegstein practices in the general real estate group with a focus on development and offering plans as well as the acquisition, disposition, financing, leasing and development of various property types. With respect to offering plans, Mr. Kriegstein’s work on behalf of clients spans the many phases of the condominium and cooperative formation process, including the promulgation of condominium and cooperative governing documents, the preparation and filing of condominium and cooperative offering plans (or applications for no-action letters) with the New York State Department of Law, and the sale of individual residential and commercial condominium and cooperative units. With nearly 15 years of experience representing sellers and purchasers in the acquisition, sale, and lease of high-end co-op and condominium units, townhouses and residential homes, Mr. Kriegstein provides clients with comprehensive services, including pre-contract due diligence review of properties, contract preparation and negotiation, title and lien search review and guidance through all aspects of a residential closing transaction. Being that such a large portion of Mr. Kriegstein’s practice is focused on representing developers and drafting condominium and cooperative documents, clients purchasing under an offering plan gain invaluable insight about the transaction which translates into more information, better protection and unparalleled counsel. Bar Admissions: New York; Education: University of South Florida (B.S. Major in Criminal Justice, Minor in Political Science, 1996); Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad Law Center (J.D., cum laude, Goodwin Fellow, 2001).