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Speakers and Panels

Navigating Community Pushback & Prioritizing the Island's Top Asset Classes

Prioritizing Industrial, Retail & Emerging Demand

Gwen O'Shea

Gwen O'Shea

President & CEO

Community Development Corporation of Long Island

Joseph Graziose, Sr.

Joseph Graziose, Sr.

EVP, Residential Construction and Development

RXR

Angel Cepeda

Angel Cepeda

Community and Economic Development Director

Town of Huntington

Heath Abramsohn

Heath Abramsohn

Head of Acquisitions, North Central

Rockefeller Group

Peter Curry
Moderator

Peter Curry

Partner

Farrell Fritz

Gwen O'Shea

President & CEO

Community Development Corporation of Long Island

Gwen O’Shea is the President & CEO of the Community Development Corporation of Long Island. She oversees the 51-year-old regional non-profit with three non-profit affiliates and numerous for-profit subsidiaries, over $31 million in assets, an annual budget of $35 million and a staff of 87. CDCLI strives to strengthen homes, communities and individuals.

CDCLI serves over 20,000 individuals annually through a variety of business lines: Rental Assistance, Resident Services, The Home Ownership Center, Home Improvement and Optimization and Real Estate Development. CDCLI’s Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI) provides critical capital to under financed communities; supporting multi-family developments, homeowners and individuals. Currently, over $10 million is deployed in loan funds.

CDCLI is a co-venture partner in fifteen multifamily tax credit complexes representing over 2000 apartments, with an additional 278 in pre-development. CDCLI has developed 235 single family affordable for sale subdivisions and currently managed 47 single-family scattered site rental properties.

As a chartered member of NeighborWorks®(a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization that supports community development), CDCLI is recognized as an “exemplary organization,” meeting a high standard of fiscal integrity and service performance to assist local residents in achieving their dreams.

Prior to joining CDCLI in March 2017, Gwen served as the President & CEO of HWCLI for 10 years. She was the first female executive of the umbrella organization that advocates for the rights of those most vulnerable and at-risk.

From 2006-2012, Gwen was an Adjunct Professor at LIU for the Graduate Programs of Social Work & Health Care & Public Administration.

Gwen serves as a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York’s Housing Advisory Council, is an Executive Member of the New York State Neighborworks Alliance and is a Board Member of the Long Island Federally Qualified Health Centers.

Gwen received her MS from the Milano School of International Affairs, Management & Urban

Heath Abramsohn

Head of Acquisitions, North Central

Rockefeller Group

Heath Abramsohn is Head of Acquisitions, North Central Development, for Rockefeller Group. In this role he is responsible for land acquisitions and development of industrial and multifamily assets throughout the North Central region (includes New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Midwest region.)

Mr. Abramsohn joined Rockefeller Group in 2005 and has held positions of increasing responsibility throughout career with the company including asset experience with industrial, office, multifamily, and mixed-use projects. Throughout his career at Rockefeller Group, he has been involved in the acquisition, development, lease, and sale of more than 15 million square feet of industrial space. Mr. Abramsohn has also been instrumental in Rockefeller Group’s expansion of industrial assets in New York and the Mid-Atlantic region.

Prior to joining the Rockefeller Group, Mr. Abramsohn worked in Corporate Finance at Pfizer. He was also a Consultant with Accenture. He received his bachelor’s degree from Muhlenberg College where he majored in Accounting and Economics. He received his master’s degree in Real Estate Development from New York University.

Mr. Abramsohn holds a real estate license in New Jersey and New York and is a member of NAIOP and ULI. He has been recognized by several industry publications for his market insight and has spoken on commercial real estate panels across the region representing Rockefeller Group. He is an Advisory Board member at Rutgers University Center for Real Estate.

Peter Curry

Moderator

Farrell Fritz

Peter L. Curry’s broadly based transactional practice concentrates on commercial real estate sales, acquisitions, leasing and development, and in the burgeoning area of economic development. Specific transactions include counseling major corporations in the fields of telecommunications, barcode technology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals manufacturing, food manufacture and distribution, internet content, and other technology-driven fields in the acquisition or disposal of headquarters sites, manufacturing facilities, and warehouse and distribution centers in all areas of the United States.

Capital Markets Outlook: Comparing Long Island to other Markets

Navigating Interest Rates, Widening Spreads & Dip in Transaction Volumes

Cory Elbaum

Cory Elbaum

Managing Director, U.S. Real Estate

Angelo Gordon

Eric Wald

Eric Wald

Managing Director

JP Morgan

Adam Altman

Adam Altman

Managing Member

KABR Group

Jose Cruz

Jose Cruz

Senior MD

JLL

Aaron Kraus

Aaron Kraus

Managing Director, Market Development and Strategy

Nuveen Green Capital

Sean Scuderi
Moderator

Sean Scuderi

Partner and Vice Chair

Tarter Krinsky & Drogan, LLP

Adam Altman

Managing Member

KABR Group

Mr. Altman is an entrepreneur and real estate investor with experience in identifying, buying and selling real estate. As a founder and Managing Member of KABR, he is instrumental in fundraising, structuring JV partnerships, sourcing and acquiring real property and debt. To date, Adam has participated in transactions totaling approximately four million square feet of commercial properties, as well as thousands of residential units, hotels and new development land with over 3000 units of entitlements. Prior to joining KABR, he focused on acquisition, development, management and disposition of real estate for a multi-billion dollar healthcare company.

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.

Aaron Kraus

Managing Director, Market Development and Strategy

Nuveen Green Capital

Aaron is the Managing Director of Market Development and Strategy at Nuveen Green Capital. Aaron has more than ten years of experience in the energy policy and markets space. Prior to Nuveen Green Capital, he was a Director of Policy and Electricity Markets for SolarCity, one of the largest solar and energy storage developers in North America. He led national policy activities for the Commercial and Industrial (C&I) segment of the market.

Earlier in his career, he was a member of the energy practice of Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked on third-party financing mechanisms for renewable and energy efficiency projects, natural gas procurement, and energy-related legislative and budget matters for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Aaron received his graduate degree from Johns Hopkins University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland.

Sean Scuderi

Moderator

Tarter Krinsky & Drogan, LLP

Sean Scuderi is a partner and vice chair of Tarter Krinsky & Drogin’s Construction Practice. Scuderi, named a Law360 Construction Rising Star this year, represents owners, developers, non-profit entities, schools, architects, engineers, general contractors, and construction managers through every phase of the design and construction process, from negotiating construction agreements to handling complex disputes. Additionally, he serves as general counsel to his clients and provides a strategic and holistic approach to all their construction, development, and real estate needs.

Multifamily Outlook: Supply & Demand

Getting Approvals & Increasing Units

Christopher Capece

Christopher Capece

President

Heatherwood

Kelley Coughlan-Heck

Kelley Coughlan-Heck

Executive Vice President, Development

Tritec

Steven Dubb

Steven Dubb

Principal

The Beechwood Organization

Greg DeRosa

Greg DeRosa

President

G2D Development

Salvatore Coco

Salvatore Coco

Partner

BHC Architects

Al Amato
Moderator

Al Amato

Founder and Managing Partner

Amato Law Group

Christopher Capece

President

Heatherwood

Christopher Capece is the President of Heatherwood, a multigenerational privately owned real

estate company in the business of designing, building and operating best-in-class multifamily and

mixed-use communities in New York Metro and Southeast U.S. Heatherwood has been a pioneer

in the suburban apartment sector developing its first apartment communities in America’s first

suburb, Long Island, in the early 1960’s. Prior to joining Heatherwood, Mr. Capece was the Vice

President of Development responsible for acquisition and development activity on Long Island,

Westchester and Connecticut for AvalonBay Communities, a Real Estate Investment Trust in the

business of developing, redeveloping, acquiring and managing high-quality apartment

communities in high-barrier-to-entry submarkets in the United States.

Mr. Capece is an active member of several non-profit organizations and housing advocacy

groups. He is a Board and Executive Committee Member at The George Washington University

Center for Real Estate (GWCRE) as well as a Board and Executive Committee member at the

Long Island Builder’s Institute (LIBI) and sits on the Boards of the Association for a Better Long

Island (ABLI), the Stony Brook Real Estate Institute (SBREI) and the Long Island Association

(LIA).

Mr. Capece is currently Vice Chairman of the YMCA of Long Island, is an active board member

of Community Housing Innovations (CHI), and previously served on the board of Harlem RBI’s

All-Star Committee (now DREAM) in NYC. Mr. Capece is a Board Member and graduate of

The Energeia Partnership and has been an active member of Habitat for Humanity where he

helped to coordinate the construction of several homes for deserving families on Long Island. In

2009 he was named as one of Long Island Business News Forty Under 40. Mr. Capece holds

dual MBA degrees from Columbia University and London Business School and graduated from

The George Washington University with a BA in Finance. Christopher lives in New York City

with his wife, Frances and their children, Abigail and Katharine.

Steven Dubb

Principal

The Beechwood Organization

Steven Dubb is a principal of The Beechwood Organization (www.beechwoodhomes.com) founded by his father Michael

Dubb in 1985.

Beechwood is the leading developer of residential housing and sophisticated lifestyle communities on Long Island, and

one of the largest in New York State, having built 7,000 homes and 60 communities with new sites in development from

the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens across Nassau and Suffolk Counties to the Hamptons.

Brand names include Arverne by the Sea, Bishops Pond, Country Pointe, Harbor Pointe, Marina Pointe, Meadowbrook

Pointe and The Vanderbilt.

Transitioning from small builder to national leader, the National Association of Home Builders cited Beechwood a

Top 250 builder for 2018 in the United States where it has also ranked 116th in Professional Builder Magazine’s

Housing Giants Top 400. Long Island Business News cited Beechwood as “the most prolific home builder on Long

Island” and in 2018 named it Residential Developer of the Year for the fifth year running.

Dubb is responsible for developing the company’s acquisition and construction loans; sourcing and structuring

acquisitions; managing leasing for commercial holdings; and diversifying the Beechwood Homes brand.

Dubb is regularly tapped for his real estate market views by media and industry panels including The New York

Times, The New York Post, The Real Deal, Long Island Business News, Newsday, LI Pulse, Haute Living,

Hamptons Magazine, Curbed Hamptons, Dan’s Behind the Hedges, NBC NY Open House, CUNY TV The

Stoler Report, The Fordham Real Estate Institute and Mortgage Bankers Association of New York.

Dubb is a Professional Builder 40 Under 40 rising star; and a Long Island Builders Institute board member.

Dubb graduated from New York University where he specialized in real estate. He was with Credit Suisse in its Real

Estate Finance and Securitization Group before joining the family business in 2008.

Dubb is an active supporter of STOKED (www.stoked.org), a charity promoting personal development, academic

achievement and healthy living to the under-served youth through action sports culture.

The born and bred Long Islander from Oyster Bay resides in both Manhattan and Amagansett. He regularly covers the

100+ mile stretch of Beechwood projects from New York City and across Long Island where he can also be found surfing

the shores of the Rockaways and the Hamptons

Salvatore Coco

Partner

BHC Architects

Sal is a partner at one of the nation’s oldest, established architectural firms.  A native

Long Islander and a second generation Architect, he specializes in the planning and

design of mixed use buildings, transit oriented development and multi-family

residential projects.

His firm’s current projects are wide ranging, first of their kind and significant in their

scope and innovation.  This work has been completed all across Long Island and

includes Wyandanch Rising; where BHC worked to refine the Master Plan for the

entire development; Gateway projects in Downtown and Uptown Port Jefferson and

Transit Oriented Developments in Lindenhurst, Riverhead, Central Islip and

Copiague

Another important focus has been designing cost effective; attractive Workforce

Housing.  Some of these include Vineyard View; 50 townhouses in Southold; 20

Station Drive, four story, 87 units in Wyandanch; 40 Station Drive, five story, 98 units

with retail; 11 Park Drive; five story 94 units of Senior Housing in Wyandanch;

Peconic Crossing, five story 45 units on Main Street in Riverhead; 34 Park Avenue; a

four story 75 unit Senior development with LGBT headquarters at its base, in Bay

Shore; Matinecock Court; a 145 unit townhouse development in Huntington; Sterling

Green; three story 71 unit development in Farmingdale; Hempstead Village’s

‘Carman Place’, now in construction, consists of two five story mixed use buildings

containing 226 units with parking and retail below and The Grove at East Patchogue,

which is 55 units with retail.

Recent ‘Market Rate’ Multifamily projects include ‘The Wel’; a 260 unit

development in Lindenhurst; ‘Shoregate’ Bay Shore, a 419 unit mixed use

development in Bay Shore; The Shipyard at Port Jeff, a 112 unit three story

development; Hudson Place at Central Islip, 166 new units and a 100 unit

redevelopment of the NYIT CI Campus; Fieldstone at Commack, 98 units of 55 and

over housing; Smithtown Preserve, a 180 unit 55 and over townhouse development;

The Vue at Riverhead is now in design development, a 117 unit five story mixed use

building and a Transit Oriented Mixed Use Development at the Riverhead Train

Station which will bring 234 units and 6,000 SF of retail.

Additionally, Sal now has in production two Market Rate developments in Hicksville,

as well as Baldwin Commons (workforce) and Baldwin Sunrise (Market Rate) which

are the first projects approved by the Town of Hempstead for their new Baldwin

zoning; and two buildings consisting of a 101 unit Market Rate Building a 56 unit

Workforce development at Garvies Point. The next phase of Wyandanch Village is set

to break ground this Summer which is a 219 unit five story mixed use building.

Sal has worked directly with municipalities such as the Village of Westbury to rezone

their Village to promote responsible development.   He has worked with the Town of

Babylon to rezone the ‘Downtown Copiague Zoning District’ which has resulted in

the first development ‘Copiague Commons’.

Overall, the firm of Beatty Harvey Coco Architects is the longest running

continuously established architectural firm on Long Island. They have completed

over 150 Public Library projects in the NY Area, including Greenburgh, Ossining,

Cherry Hill, Merrick, Cold Spring Harbor, Rogers Memorial in Southampton, Friends

Academy Library and dozens more. The firm has experience in Hospitality projects

across LI, including the recently approved Jericho Plaza Hotel in Oyster Bay. BHC

also has offices in Baltimore, MD where they have worked over the last thirty years

on Harbor East, Harbor Point and Fells Point on numerous mixed use, residential and

hospitality projects.

Sal is a Member of the Congress for the New Urbanism and a LEED Accredited

Professional, he received his Bachelor of  Architecture degree from the New York

Institute of Technology in 1987. He has also practiced Architecture in Florida and

designed several Airport Projects in the Caribbean.

Al Amato

Moderator

Amato Law Group

Alfred L. Amato is the founder and managing partner of Amato Law Group, PLLC, which was established in 1995. Today, the firm is one of the largest real estate and land use firms on Long Island. With a sophisticated real estate practice cultivated over 27 years, Amato Law Group, PLLC strategically focuses on commercial real estate development and transactions, land use and zoning, litigation, telecommunications and renewable energy. The firm represents some of the nation’s largest commercial, industrial and multi-family developers, telecommunication companies, health care and assisted living providers, retailers, and public agencies, along with international energy companies and regional developers and businesses. The firm’s clients depend upon Al’s comprehensive experience to successfully navigate the challenging and complex Long Island development environment. Mr. Amato is admitted to the New York State Bar, the New Jersey State Bar, the United States District Court Eastern District of New York and the United States District Court Southern District of New York. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Nassau and Suffolk County Bar Associations, the New Jersey Bar Association and the New York State Wireless Association. Al serves on the boards of the U.S. Green Building Council and the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society.

Why This Matters

What You'll Learn:

  • Which types of developers, builders and investors are most bullish on Long Island.

  • Demand is up across most parts of Long Island but supply is lagging behind at times. Understand how to overcome objections with approvals and community pushback.

  • Understand what current and proposed projects are in the construction pipeline on Long Island and how this will dictate the future of this market?

  • Closer look at multifamily demand in long island and where developers are targeting these communities relative to the single-family housing market.

  • Repositioning projects continue to be a main focus on the Island. Hear how to best identify the office and retail assets best suited for conversions.

How you'll do more business:

Enhance your business by understanding the investment and developer appetite on Long Island and see which players are prioritizing this market over other booming development clusters around New York City. Hear from the top developers, investors and brokers on multifamily, industrial and mixed-use projects. 

Who attends:

Investors, owners, developers, lenders, tenants, brokers, architects, contractors, engineers, property managers and you!

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. 

To request disability-related accommodations, please contact audrey.sullivan@bisnow.com no later than seven business days prior to the event.

2023 Long Island Developments To Know

Venue

Garden City Hotel
45 Seventh Street
Garden City, NY 11530

Ballroom: Societe Suite & Cotillion Room
Floor: 2

Parking:
Complimentary self-parking for attendees.
 

Get Directions

Agenda

Time Activity
12:00 PM
1:00 PM
Coffee, Breakfast & Networking
1:00 PM
1:45 PM
Navigating Community Pushback & Prioritizing the Island's Top Asset Classes

1. Navigating community pushback and working with local municipalities to deliver community-serving developments.
2. Prioritizing Long Island's hot asset classes such as industrial & retail.

1:45 PM
2:30 PM
Capital Markets Dynamics: Comparing Long Island to other Markets

1. Experts weigh in on the impact of low transaction volumes and what that means for the construction pipeline.
2. Navigating the volatile capital markets conditions and widening spreads.

2:30 PM
3:15 PM
Multifamily Outlook: Supply & Demand

1. Multifamily approvals are becoming increasingly political. Why is that and how are experts overcoming these hurdles?
2. Better understand which parts of Long Island need the most housing support and which neighborhoods are best positioned to accommodate.

3:15 PM
3:30 PM
Networking