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The Wanamaker Office Building

The Wanamaker Office Building

About The Wanamaker Office Building Lobby Improvements - Built in 1911, the Wanamaker Building is a National Historic Landmark. The improvements will update aesthetics and rethink key areas of the lobby and check-in areas in order to make the experience flow better for tenants and visitors. In addition, Rubenstein and Amerimar developed a 7,136 sf prebuilt suite on the 10th floor to capitalize on the significant activity in Market East which is undergoing over $1 billion of development. For more information please visit: http://thewanamakerbuilding.com

Speakers and Panels

Tax Code

10-Year Abatement, Property Assessments, and More

Brad Molotsky
Moderator

Brad Molotsky

Partner

FisherBroyles

Paul Levy

Paul Levy

President & CEO

Center City District

Maria Quiñones-Sánchez

Maria Quiñones-Sánchez

Councilwoman

City of Philadelphia

Matthew Pestronk

Matthew Pestronk

Co-Founder

Post Brothers

Ori Feibush

Ori Feibush

President

OCF Realty

Brad Molotsky

Moderator

FisherBroyles

Brad A. Molotsky practices in the area of real estate law. He serves as a lead for the Duane Morris Project Development/P3 group and as co-head of the firm's Opportunity Zones group. Mr. Molotsky’s primary practice is focused in the areas of opportunity zone fund creation and fund deployment, financing, public private partnership (PPP or P-3), real estate joint ventures (including mixed-use, life sciences and multi-family development), commercial leasing (including a focus in cannabis leasing), and acquisitions and divestitures. He also has deep experience in environmental, social, governance, public company issues such as enterprise risk, internal audit,

compensation, as well as energy efficiency, sustainability and corporate social responsibility. Prior to joining Duane Morris and for nearly 20 years, Brad served as executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Brandywine Realty Trust. At Brandywine, Mr. Molotsky was responsible for all legal operations of the company, including acquisitions and divestitures, financings, joint ventures, board matters, insurance procurement, litigation oversight, SEC filing oversight and the legal aspects of capital raising. During his tenure, the company grew from 40 buildings to approximately 300 buildings, totaling 28 million square feet. In 2020, Mr. Molotsky was named a national influencer in the Opportunity Zone space by OZ Magazine and won The Philadelphia Inquirer Influencers of Law Award for Real Estate. He was also named by The Philadelphia Inquirer as an Influencer of Real Estate for Real Estate Legal Excellence in 2019. He was also named in TheLegal Intelligencer's list of Pennsylvania

Trailblazers for 2019. Mr. Molotsky was named one of Philadelphia Business Journal's 2018 "Best of the Bar: Top Lawyers in Philadelphia. He was also named General Counsel of the year by the Philadelphia Business Journal in 2014 and NJBIZ in 2013 and was awarded the Martin Luther King Community Service award in 2014, the Township Sustainability Leader Award in 2016 and the Roger Davis Community Service Award in 2017.

Paul Levy

President & CEO

Center City District

Paul is the founding chief executive of the Center City District, serving in that capacity since January 1991. The CCD is a $22 million downtown management district, which provides security, cleaning, place marketing and planning services, as well as streetscape and park improvements for the central business district of Philadelphia.

Maria Quiñones-Sánchez

Councilwoman

City of Philadelphia

Councilwoman Maria D. Quiñones-Sánchez is a veteran activist with over 30 years of service to the City of Philadelphia, currently serving a third four-year term on Philadelphia City Council. Maria has advocated tirelessly for creating and preserving family-sustaining jobs, investing in a trained and educated workforce, reducing blight and transforming vacant land, keeping families in their homes, mandating ethics and transparency in government, revitalizing neighborhood economies, reforming unsafe demolition practices, and securing the rights of women, families, and workers across the City.

Maria made history in November of 2007 when she rallied grassroots support and nearly 80% of the vote towards becoming the first Latina elected to a district seat in City Council. Maria quickly became a rising star for her hard work and commitment to government reform. Her “Freshman 15” reforms, with colleagues Bill Green and Curtis Jones, Jr., improved transparency, modernized our municipal government, and saved the City over $60 million annually. In 2008, Maria was named “Best of Philly” new Councilperson and among the City’s future women leaders to watch by the Philadelphia Daily News. In 2009, Philadelphia Magazine named Maria one of the “Most Influential 50” in the City of Philadelphia.

During her most recent term, Maria’s legislative achievements included the historic creation of a Philadelphia Land Bank, which vests strategic neighborhood revitalization in a single, transparent agency that empowers residents, small businesses, community groups, non-profits, and developers across the City to transform and re-purpose vacant and blighted land. Maria also led historic business tax reform to make Philadelphia’s manufacturing industry competitive again in the global marketplace by reducing tax liability for local businesses by nearly 50%, while ensuring that companies headquartered outside the City pay their fair share. Maria fought to keep Philadelphians in their homes by passing tax foreclosure reform, AVI assistance for vulnerable homeowners, a Longtime Owner-Occupant Program (LOOP), a strong Homestead exemption, and a property tax deferral program. Maria passed landmark water affordability legislation to ensure that all Philadelphians can access clean and affordable running water, by tethering repayment to ability to pay. And Maria fought tirelessly for demolition reform, introducing thorough legislation that requires demolition projects submit and abide by a comprehensive safety plan. In recognition of Maria’s expertise, Mayor Nutter appointed her to serve on a Special Investigating Committee on Demolitions Practices, a Blue Ribbon Commission of national experts on demolition and building safety standards, and the Police Oversight Committee.

Maria currently serves City Council as Chair of the Committees of Appropriations; Chair of the Committee on Licenses and Inspections; Vice Chair of the Committee on Streets and Services; and Vice Chair of the Committee on Public Health and Human Services. Maria also serves as a member of the following committees: Rules; Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs; Education; Labor and Civil Service; and Housing, Neighborhood Development, and the Homeless.

Prior to serving on City Council, Maria served as the Regional Director for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA), serving Pennsylvania and Delaware. At PRFAA, Maria mounted a historic, seven-city voter registration and Get-Out-the-Vote (GOTV) campaign registering over 32,000 new voters and produced an estimated increase of 35% of the Latino turnout in the campaign’s targeted areas.

Maria is a founding member of the Pennsylvania Statewide Latino Coalition and served as its first Co-Chair of the Board of Directors. From June 1996 to June 2000, Maria served as the first female and youngest Executive Director of ASPIRA, the largest Latino educational institution in Pennsylvania. Maria’s accomplishments at ASPIRA included the creation of the first bilingual charter school in Pennsylvania (Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community Charter School), and the development of a multi-million dollar school and administrative office building in her neighborhood of Hunting Park.

From 1988 through 1996, Maria served in several city government positions including Deputy Commissioner of Elections and Legislative Assistant in City Council. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Women’s Campaign Fund, a statewide political action committee working to elect progressive women to the State Legislature.

Maria grew up in the Hunting Park section of the City and now resides in the eastern North Philadelphia neighborhood of Norris Square. She proudly represents both neighborhoods. Maria is married to Tomas Sanchez, JD. Maria and Tomas have two sons, Edgar and Tomasito, and are grandparents to Jace Antonio.

Matthew Pestronk

Co-Founder

Post Brothers

Matthew Pestronk is co-founder of Post Brothers, a real estate investment, development and management company with singular and unique expertise in urban real estate development. Matthew serves as President of the company, engaged in the sponsorship of Class-A multifamily, mixed-use and retail development projects comprised of over 7,000 units that are operating, under development or disposed plus, over 400,000 sf of commercial space, with a total capitalized cost in excess of $2.5 billion. Matthew shares strategic leadership of the company with his brother, Michael, and is engaged in asset management, financing, and project and capital formation. Matthew has worked in real estate capital transactions for his entire 20+-year career and was previously a real estate financing executive in New York City prior to forming Post Brothers. Matthew is also very active in his community and has board service experience for multiple charitable organizations including the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, Beat the Streets Philadelphia, West Nottingham Academy, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is the Immediate past Chair of Jewish Federation Real Estate.

Ori Feibush

President

OCF Realty

Ori C. Feibush is an entrepreneur, small business owner, and real estate developer. As President and

Founder of OCF Realty, Feibush has built a successful real estate brokerage that provides

comprehensive services in property management, home buying and selling, and development. His

offices have developed nearly one thousand residential and commercial units throughout the city, with

projects ranging in scale from one-off single-family homes to mid-rise apartment buildings. Over the

years, Ori has given much of his development focus to the struggling Point Breeze community, investing

millions of dollars to rehabilitate the neighborhood's once-vibrant commercial corridor and donating

heavily to various neighborhood groups and schools.

The OCF Realty brokerage has two offices in Philadelphia and another opening soon in Margate, New

Jersey. Currently, OCF is developing 17 individual real estate projects totaling 101 Single-Family

Homes, 630 apartments, and about 200,000 square feet of commercial spaces. Their offices presently

manage over 1,800 rental units across Philadelphia and lease nearly 1,000 units annually. In 2021, OCF

Realty brokered more than $360 Million in real estate sales and anticipate a strong close to 2022 .

Throughout all of this, OCF has cultivated strong relationships with best-in-class contractors, architects,

engineers, attorneys and vendors, ensuring the delivery of an exceptional quality product.

Philly 2020 Forecast

Recap 2019 & Hear How It Will Impact Next Year

Craig Spencer

Craig Spencer

Chairman & CEO

Arden Group

Larry Steinberg

Larry Steinberg

Senior Managing Director

Colliers

Ian Anderson

Ian Anderson

Senior Director of Research

CBRE

Louis Merlini

Louis Merlini

VP, Asset Management

Rubenstein Partners

George Kotridis
Moderator

George Kotridis

Principal

CLA

Craig Spencer

Chairman & CEO

Arden Group

Mr. Spencer is the Chairman & CEO of Arden Group, established in 1989 as a fully integrated real estate company focusing on acquiring, developing and managing high quality real estate assets. The company has purchased and developed more than $3.7B of real estate including office buildings, hotels and high-rise mixed-use residential. Arden’s asset management group has managed more than $7.0B in assets. Arden Group in 2012 established Arden Fund Management, its real estate equity and debt fund management business and has been name by Preqin as the #1 globally Most Consistent Closed End Private Real Estate Fund Manager for both 2017 and 2018.

In addition to leading Arden, Craig has participated in several non-real estate ventures including the acquisition and subsequent sale of Admiralty Bank to Royal Bank of Canada in February 2003. He was also a founding board member of Anchor Commercial Bank based in Palm Beach, Florida. Craig was Founder/Co-Owner with Jon Bon Jovi of the Philadelphia Soul Arena Football Team. In its five-year history, Craig helped build it into the most successful team in the league and the 2008 World Champions. Craig and Jon also established and are the Co-Chairmen of the JBJ Soul Charitable Foundation, which has provided 500 housing units along with educational programs to homeless men and women. The Foundation opened Soul Kitchens in Red Bank, NJ in 2011 and Toms River, NJ in 2016 with over 60,000 meals served to date.

Craig is a licensed attorney who specialized in real estate, banking and bankruptcy law. He is a frequent guest lecturer at the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Larry Steinberg

Senior Managing Director

Colliers

Laurence Steinberg joined Colliers in April 2019 to lead and further grow the Urban Retail division in Philadelphia. Larry has an extensive 25-year plus career in commercial real estate that includes development, consulting and brokerage. Prior to joining Colliers, Larry headed up the Retail group at Rittenhouse Realty Advisors (RRA), served as an Executive Vice President with CBRE (FAMECO), a Principal of Michael Salove Company, and as a Partner in L.S. Powell Company, where he developed over one million square feet of commercial real estate.

For over a decade, Larry has brokered deals with acclaimed restaurateurs, premier restaurant chains and national retailers in the Philadelphia area. He has represented Morton’s Steakhouse for all of their Philadelphia and surrounding area locations, including their highest grossing unit at Caesar’s Palace in Atlantic City. Larry has worked closely with Philadelphia restaurant luminaries such as Stephen Starr, Jose Garces, Marc Vetri, Kevin Sbraga, Steven Cook and Michael Solomonov.

Larry’s retail presence can be seen throughout Center City. He was successful in bringing national retailers to Philadelphia such as H&M, The North Face, Cole Haan and West Elm. Recent noteworthy transactions include the first Target store in Center City and deals for Warby Parker, Theory, Madewell, Under Armour, a 26,000 square foot Walgreens flagship store, and a 40,000 square foot Nordstrom Rack.

In addition to leasing, Larry has brokered the sale of important retail properties, including nine buildings along Walnut Street in Rittenhouse Square. Most recently he represented the Seller for the sale of 1330 Chestnut Street, 1529 Walnut Street, and 1700 Chestnut Street.

Ian Anderson

Senior Director of Research

CBRE

Ian Anderson, Senior Director of Research

Head of Americas Office and U.S. Divisional Thought Leadership

Ian Anderson has a dual role as Senior Director of Research for CBRE. In one role, Mr. Anderson is the Head of Americas Office Research, in which he analyzes, identifies, and communicates relevant trends impacting office markets. In Mr. Anderson’s other role, he oversees thought leadership for all local markets in the U.S. to ensure unique, local market insights are being generated to help guide client decision making.

Prior to this role, Mr. Anderson was a Director of Research and Analysis for CBRE, overseeing thought leadership and research operations for the Pennsylvania region. Before joining CBRE, Mr. Anderson was the Director of Research for Grosvenor Fund Management in North America. His primary focus was to direct investment strategy by identifying the risks and opportunities of property sectors, metropolitan

markets, and macroeconomic trends.

Mr. Anderson has a Bachelor’ degree in Business and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh, a Master of City Planning degree from the University of Pennsylvania and has undertaken significant post-graduate work in Economics at Temple University. Mr. Anderson is from Wayne, PA, and currently resides in Narberth, PA with his wife and two boys.

Louis Merlini

VP, Asset Management

Rubenstein Partners

Louis joined Rubenstein Partners in 2018. As Vice President of Asset Management, he is responsible for assisting the firm’s asset management activities in the Mid-Atlantic.

Prior to Rubenstein Partners, Louis was a principal at Miller Investment Management where he focused on the firm’s real estate activities and began his career as a structural engineer with O’Donnell & Naccarato. He graduated from Villanova University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and received his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

George Kotridis

Moderator

CLA

With more than 25 years in public accounting, George devotes most of his time serving clients in the Real Estate Industry. These include developers, commercial and residential operators, hotels, property and asset managers, home builders, private equity funds, and individual investors. In 2009, he took on the lead role of the legacy LarsonAllen firm’s Real Estate practice and has brought that experience forward focusing on further developing the firm’s capabilities in advisory, assurance, and tax services available to clients in the real estate and hospitality space. He also is a lead resource in the firm helping clients in real estate workout transactions.

Technical experience:

• Assists clients in selecting entity status, advises on partnership and LLC formations, helps with modeling IRR calculations and waterfall provisions, and forecasting distributions and allocations under IRC Subchapter K

• Provides consulting and expert services related to performance, cash flow, and operations of commercial real estate and hotel operations, including litigation support

• Helps clients assess the benefits of cost segregation studies, repair studies, change in accounting methods, as well as help facilitate closely-held business strategic planning initiatives, and design and implementation of succession plans

Education/professional involvement:

• Bachelor of business in accounting from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

• Certified Public Accountant in the state of Pennsylvania

Speaking engagements:

• Pennsylvania Bar Institute panelist on Distressed Real Estate transactions

• Testified in Federal Bankruptcy Court (Trenton, NJ) on feasibility of petitioner’s plan.

Summary

  1. The Harper has opened its doors, the Laurel is on schedule to complete construction in 2021, and Dranoff’s Arthaus just broke ground. What does all of this high end multifamily say about the direction Philadelphia is heading?

  2. The 10-year tax abatement is on everyone’s mind. Multiple bills were introduced before summer began to change or even get rid of it. Will any of these bills gain any traction and what will that mean for developing in Philadelphia?

  3. What were this years’ major acquisitions, investments, and projects in and around Philadelphia?

  4. As the trade war escalates with China, Morgan Stanley predicts if things hold we’re 4-6 months from a recession. How will the next recession impact the CRE industry and how can you best prepare for it?

  5. The city just took a $48 million loss in court due to unfair property assessments. With no new property assessments in place it seems clear that this won’t be the last lawsuit to hit the city. What does this mean for the future of property?

Venue

The Wanamaker Office Building
100 Penn Square East
Philadelphia, PA 19119

The Atrium
Floor: 9th Floor, Suite 410


 The Wanamaker Garage - Accessible from either Juniper Street or 13 Street ​

Agenda

Time Activity
12:30 PM
1:30 PM
Coffee, Breakfast, & Networking!
1:30 PM
2:15 PM
Tax Code

10-Year Abatement, Property Assessments, and More

2:15 PM
3:00 PM
Philly 2020 Forecast

Recap 2019 & Hear How It Will Impact Next Year

3:00 PM
3:30 PM
More Networking!