Bay Area Office Summit: The Next Chapter

As Executive Vice President of the Northern California & Mountain Regions for Brookfield Properties’ U.S. Office Division, David Sternberg oversees the leasing, management, and construction of approximately 9M square feet of premier commercial office properties in downtown Denver, San Francisco, and Seattle. In addition, Sternberg has been a part of the Senior Leadership team involved with two major developments in San Francisco, 415 Natoma and Pier 70. During his 30-plus year career in commercial real estate, Sternberg has also held management positions with major real estate investment and property management companies in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Minneapolis. Active in numerous civic leadership roles, Sternberg serves as Chair for the Denver’s Upper Downtown Stakeholder’s group and Downtown Denver Partnership Management Group, is a board member for Denver Civic Ventures and the Bay Area Council, and works closely with elected officials, civic leaders and arts organizations. Originally from the Chicago area, Sternberg currently resides just outside San Francisco with his wife Robin. They have three children.

A. Robert Paratte was appointed Executive Vice President, Chief Leasing Officer and Senior Advisor to the Chairman in December 2022 and is responsible for the company’s leasing and business development activities across the company. He served as Executive Vice President of Leasing and Business Development from January 2014 to November 2022. Mr. Paratte pursues new build-to-suit opportunities, cultivates, and expands the company’s roster of key tenant relationships, focuses on corporate marketing and branding, and assists in the professional development of all leasing personnel. Mr. Paratte has been instrumental in securing some of the largest lease transactions in the company’s development projects. Across a two-decade-plus career in commercial real estate, Mr. Paratte has held leadership roles in various disciplines, including leasing, property acquisitions, development, and property management. He joined Kilroy Realty after seven years at Tishman Speyer, where he was managing director for global leasing and business development and was responsible for maintaining and building relationships with corporate real estate executives across the country and around the world. Before Tishman Speyer, Mr. Paratte was a partner at San Francisco–based William Wilson and Associates. Mr. Paratte was named the San Francisco Business Times Deal Maker of the Year in 2002. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Planning from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from the University of San Francisco. He is a licensed California Real Estate Broker and a member of the Urban Land Institute.

Connor Kidd is President and CEO of The Swig Company and has over a decade of institutional commercial real estate experience. Connor joined The Swig Company in 2009 with the Investments Team and led the Asset Management team since from January 2019 until September 2023. Throughout his career, Connor has participated as a principal in transactions of over $5 billion in value, comprising over 6 million square feet and over 500 multifamily units. Before joining The Swig Company, Connor held real estate positions at Hunter Properties, AMB Properties (now Prologis), and North Star Realty Finance. Connor has a Bachelor of Science and an MBA from Stanford University. He is an active member of the San Francisco NAIOP chapter and a member of the Stanford Alumni Real Estate Counsel (SREC).

Robert Tersini joined The Sobrato Organization in 2014. As Senior Vice President, Real Estate and Development, he is responsible for all aspects of The Sobrato Organization’s real estate projects in key geographic areas. This includes sourcing real estate opportunities through both new acquisitions and renovating the organization’s existing portfolio. He manages the development team and fosters relationships with governmental officials, local organizations, and oversees important relationships with partners and tenants. Robert has been a member of the Urban Land Institute and an active member of NAIOP's Developing Leader program since 2014. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

Experienced real estate design & construction and workplace leader. Adept at aligning real estate strategies and delivery with business objectives. Navigate all phases of a business life cycle from hypergrowth to operational efficiency. Over 20+ years of experience leading, building & inspiring successful teams to deliver results/projects across the world. From world class offices and workspaces, biotech research and labs and academic learning environments to site selection and large scale site development. My unique capabilities is the deep real estate, design and construction expertise with a proven track record of aligning it to business outcomes. With solutions that consider the short-term and long-term risks and opportunities, with on-time delivery and efficient capital management. Focused on finding the intersection of business strategy, people and culture, I’m passionate about creating innovative and sustainable solutions that foster productivity, collaboration, and employee well-being.

Katie is a Senior Vice President at Strada, concentrating on development, acquisitions, asset management, property management and marketing. She is involved in all stages of the development process, from initial diligence to entitlements to construction of a project. Katie currently acts as Development Associate on Strada’s 1629 Market Street and 1100 Clay Street projects. Additionally, Katie serves as the Property Manager for Strada’s Roseville Innovation Park and 3068 Kilgore properties in the greater Sacramento area. Katie earned a B.S. in journalism from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Giselle is the director of global real estate and capital projects at Zendesk. She joined Zendesk in 2019 and has managed location strategy, real estate transaction management, and the design and construction team. Before Zendesk, Giselle held numerous positions managing real estate and workplace at NerdWallet, SunEdison, Slack, FirstWind, and StubHub.

A name partner of the firm, Anton N. Natsis is Chair of Allen Matkins’ Real Estate Department and is one of the top real estate attorneys in the United States. His practice focuses on development, leasing, purchase and sale, and portfolio investment sales transactions involving office, retail, and industrial projects, as well as arbitrating numerous fair market value disputes, CAM disputes and other significant landlord/tenant disputes. He also has extensive experience in debt, equity, and joint venture workouts, and the purchase of distressed assets and distressed debt. Tony is continually sought out by some of the largest national land owners, such as J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Blackstone Real Estate, Brookfield Properties, HCP, Vornado Realty Trust, Regent Properties, The Irvine Company, Boston Properties, Equity Office Properties, Kilroy Realty, Inc., Beacon Capital Partners, MPG Office Trust, Kamehameha Schools (The Bishop Estate) and Westfield Corporation. He represents many governmental entities, including the LAUSD, State of California, and City of Anaheim. Tony is also frequently retained as counsel for major national office tenants, such as AT&T, Citicorp, the FDIC, AIG, The Walt Disney Company, and the Los Angeles Times. A frequent lecturer and author, Tony is the chief consultant for the California Continuing Education of the Bar Commercial Leasing Series, the legal education reference book on leasing for California attorneys, is an adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School for a course covering commercial real estate transactions, and has spoken before such national real estate groups as ULI and BOMA. Tony is a founding board member of The Ziman Real Estate Center, which is governed under the joint auspices of the UCLA Anderson School of Business and the UCLA Law School. In the past decade, Tony has closed commercial office leases exceeding 50 million square feet. He has worked on real estate purchase contracts with a total consideration of more than $30 billion and on development transactions with a total consideration in excess of $25 billion. Since 2006, Tony has represented clients in office building portfolio investment sales transactions involving over $75 billion of consideration. One of Tony's most significant transactions is the largest real estate acquisition deal in the history of the United States. He provided extensive real estate services in connection with Blackstone Real Estate's purchase of Equity Office Properties Trust, at that point the largest owner of office space in the U.S. other than the Federal Government, for $43 billion. Subsequently, Blackstone contracted to sell over 50% of the properties it purchased with such sales closing in the first and second quarter of 2007. Tony assisted Blackstone in its acquisition due diligence related to EOP and the subsequent sales of the properties. The transactions related to this deal included Maguire Properties' purchase of Blackstone/EOP in Orange County for $2 billion, Irvine Company's purchase of Blackstone/EOP in San Diego for $1 billion, Morgan Stanley's purchase of Blackstone/EOP in San Francisco for $2.5 billion, and Beacon Capital Partners’ purchase of Blackstone/EOP Seattle for $6.3 billion.

Cherie Y. Song is a Partner in Lubin Olson's Real Estate and Business Practice Groups. She specializes in commercial leasing, acquisitions and dispositions, and telecommunications. Ms. Song represents institutional landlords, multi-billion dollar investment management companies, REITs, pension funds, and national retailers in a broad range of lease-related matters for office, retail, industrial, mixed-use properties and telecommunications assets. She also represents developers and investors in the acquisition, development, disposition and financing of commercial properties. Her practice also includes advising startups and private companies on various real estate and business-related matters. Prior to joining Lubin Olson, Ms. Song practiced in the San Francisco office of Buchalter Nemer and the Los Angeles office of McGuireWoods. Ms. Song was honored by Thompson Reuters as a Super Lawyer “Rising Star” in 2009 and 2010.