Speakers

Avi Benamu, Co-founder, Winchester Equities

Avi Benamu is the co-founder of Winchester Equities, a New York City-based real estate investment management firm. At Winchester, Mr. Benamu is responsible for structuring attractive investment opportunities with significant upside potential and controllable downside protection and sourcing the necessary equity. Avi began his career in 1999 at a hedge fund where he was involved in due diligence process as well as fund performance analysis and reporting. He served as liaison with investors and was responsible for communications and for marketing alternative investments across the board. Mr. Benamu has also raised over $100 million for a selection of funds and real estate private placements for high net worth individuals and institutions.

Adam Bernstein, President & CEO, Bernstein Companies 

Adam Bernstein is the President of The Bernstein Companies, a third-generation, 80 year-old Washington, D.C.-based real estate firm. As President of The Bernstein Companies as well as CEO of Consortium Atlantic Realty Trust, a private REIT formed in 2006 with an initial $200 million worth of commercial assets, Adam is a recognized leader in the real estate development, investment, and management business in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

David Bevirt, Senior Vice President – Leasing, Brookfield Office Properties

David Bevirt is Senior Vice President of Leasing for Brookfield’s Washington, DC region where he is responsible for all leasing efforts of the portfolio’s 29 properties totaling 6.2 million square feet.
 
 
David Bramble, Managing Partner, MCB Real Estate 

P. David Bramble dedicates his time to sourcing transactions, financial structuring and overseeing project underwriting & execution. A corporate and real estate attorney by training, David brings a deep knowledge of all aspects of the real estate cycle. Prior to MCB, David served as the Director of commercial lending for a regionally based full-service lending firm, which he co-founded in 2000. Prior to devoting all his time to commercial real estate investment, David practiced law in the transactions group of a D.C.-based international law firm, where he provided corporate and real estate advisory services. His practice focused on complex workouts, primarily in the real estate and financial products space.

John Chesley, Managing Director – Asset Management, American Real Estate Partners

John Chesley brings over 12 years of broadly based real estate experience to the American Real Estate Partners management team with a depth of expertise in asset management, development and transaction execution across multiple asset classes and markets throughout the United States. Mr. Chesley is responsible for overseeing the asset management and financial performance of the American Real Estate Partners portfolio.

Taylor Chess, President – Retail, Peterson Companies

Heading up the Peterson Retail Development, Chess oversees 5 million square feet of existing retail which is owned, managed and leased by The Peterson Companies. Of Peterson’s 1,000 acres of developable land, Mr. Chess currently oversees 6 projects totaling over 250 acres that are in various phases of development. Mr. Chess also served 8 years as Senior Vice President of Investments at Regency Centers, where he managed the D.C., Boston and Philadelphia Investment team that developed over 2 million square feet of retail projects valued at over $250 million, as well as over $270 million in acquisitions.

Vicki Davis, President, Urban Atlantic Development

Vicki Davis is responsible for the acquisition, planning, design, and implementation of all Urban Atlantic projects. In this role, she has developed over $1.5 billion in real estate projects. Before joining Urban Atlantic, Ms. Davis served as Deputy Director of the Maryland Housing Fund, overseeing a $3 billion loan portfolio. Prior to this, she was responsible for troubled loan resolutions and disposition of $200 million portfolio for MNC Financial-South Charles Realty, and developed over 2,000 units of multifamily with Trammell Crow Residential.

James Dinegar, President & CEO, Greater Washington Board of Trade

As president and CEO, since July 2006, Jim Dinegar oversees the leading regional organization representing the business interests for major companies throughout Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia and Suburban Maryland. The Board of Trade puts its focus on the critical issues and opportunities here: transportation; emergency preparedness and business continuity; green as a competitive advantage; and the workforce challenges of recruiting and retaining highly qualified people. Special emphasis is paid to economic development strategies that will advance the growth of this region and additional focus is provided on the emerging opportunities surrounding cyber security.

Jon Dishell, Managing Director – Fund Mgmt. & Investor Rel., American Real Estate Partners

Jon Dishell brings 29 years in commercial real estate to American Real Estate Partners where he is responsible for its institutional fund management initiative. The majority of Mr. Dishell’s career was spent with Douglas Emmett, Inc., a publicly traded REIT (NYSE:DEI), and the largest office landlord in Los Angeles and Honolulu. As both a private and public company, DEI sponsored a total of eleven institutional real estate funds. The aggregate equity capitalization of these partnerships was approximately $1.9B, and for nine of the funds Jon was responsible for the investor relations function within the firm (sourcing, interfacing with, and overseeing the preparation of reporting to existing and prospective investors, their consultants and counsel as well as being the primary contact for the firm’s private equity investors).

Daniel Dooley, Chief Operating Officer, Carr Properties

Daniel P. Dooley is our Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Dooley has been in the real estate industry since 1987 when he started his career at the Staubach Company, followed by positions with Trammell Crow, JMB/Heitman Properties, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Studley. Most recently, from 2001 until joining Carr Properties in May of 2014, Dan served as a Managing Director of Regional Leasing for Tishman Speyer in Washington, DC, overseeing leasing activities for Tishman Speyer’s 10 million square foot owned and third-party managed portfolio. Mr. Dooley serves on the boards of the District of Columbia Building Industry Association and Jubilee Housing. He received his Bachelors of Business Administration in Finance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Jeff Edelstein, Director, Roadside Development

Mr. Edelstein is the Director of leasing at Roadside Development. Mr. Edelstein specializes in retail mixed-use retail leasing and merchandising, in both urban and suburban settings. He represents both landlords and Tenant in their real estate needs. Mr. Edelstein has been an actively involved in retail leasing and merchandising for the past 9 years. He currently represents multiple Tenants in the search for hard to find financially viable locations. Mr. Edelstein has successfully rolled out the expansion of Potbelly Sandwich Works in the District making them a model for success for all other fast casual food chains seeking expansion in the District. Other Tenants exclusively represented included Noodles & Company, LensCrafters, Sun Glass Hut, Pearle Vision, Kabab-ji, and celebrity Chef Mike Isabella and Celebrity Chef Kevin Sbraga.

Josh Feldman, Associate Director – National Retail Group Special Asset Services, Marcus & Millichap

Josh Feldman is a senior associate and an associate director of the National Retail Group in the Washington, D.C. office of Marcus & Millichap. Mr. Feldman brings both local and national investors of all levels to the unique retail, office and mixed-use properties in the Washington D.C. Metro area. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and has been retained to provide expert witness testimony in matters related to the commercial real estate market in general and the marketing and sale of commercial properties in the Washington, D.C. area.

Robert Filley, Senior Director – NOIPG, Marcus & Millichap

Robert (Bob) Filley is a senior director in Marcus and Millichap’s National Office Industrial Properties Group. Mr. Filley joined Marcus & Millichap in 2014 to lead office and industrial sales in the Mid-Atlantic region. He has 18 years of commercial real estate experience including development, leasing, sales and finance. Prior to joining Marcus & Millichap, Mr. Filley was managing director of investment sales at Transwestern in Washington D.C. He has been involved with or directly transacted over $1.5 billion in investment sales. Prior to moving to Washington D.C., Mr. Filley was with L.J. Melody in the Seattle where he was involved in over $400 million in financing over his three-year tenure. Having worked abroad as part of Koll Development Company (Irvine, CA) for five years on shopping center development in Taiwan and China, Mr. Filley is experienced in ground-up development and speaks Mandarin Chinese.

Nicolas Franzetti, SVP, ASB Real Estate

Nicolas Franzetti is responsible for the acquisition, disposition, and asset management of investments in the Eastern region on behalf of ASB Real Estate Investments. Since joining the Firm in 2006, he has been involved in over $1 billion worth of transactions in urban markets across the United States, concentrating in office, multifamily, retail and industrial properties. Nicolas received an MBA from Georgetown University and a BA in English Literature from McGill University. ASB Real Estate Investments is a leading U.S. real estate investment management firm headquartered in Washington D.C. with more than $5.4 billion in gross assets under management.

Michael Gill, Senior Vice President & Director – Acquisitions, Akridge

Mike Gill is a Senior Vice President and the Director of Acquisitions for Akridge. He oversees acquisitions of real estate projects throughout the metropolitan DC area as well as engaging in financings, entitlements, design, construction and leasing. Since joining Akridge in 2003, Mr. Gill has contributed to a broad range of Akridge investments that include Gallery Place, Falls Church Gateway, Loudoun Parkway Center, Urbana Corporate Center, the DC Evidence Control Facility, 7550 Wisconsin Avenue, 1200 Seventeenth Street, and 2800 Eisenhower Avenue. Prior to joining Akridge, Mr. Gill was an Associate in Merrill Lynch’s Real Estate Investment Banking program. He is a Professional Engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA and MS in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Anthony Greenberg, Principal, JBG Companies

Anthony Wolf Greenberg (Tony) is a Principal at The JBG Companies, a privately held real estate investment, development and management company based in Chevy Chase, MD. Mr. Greenberg specializes in multifamily and mixed-use development at transit-oriented sites across the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Prior to joining JBG, Mr. Greenberg was a developer at Clark Realty Capital, L.L.C. where he was involved in multifamily, mixed-use, hotel and military family housing projects. Mr. Greenberg serves on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Harvard Real Estate Academic Initiative, and he is a Trustee of the Mary Sachs Charitable Trust in Harrisburg, PA, the National Building Museum, and the American Architectural Foundation. Tony is an active member of the Urban Land Institute.

R. William Hard, Executive Vice President, LCOR

Mr. Hard is Executive Vice President of LCOR in charge of operations at the metropolitan Washington, D.C. office in Bethesda, Maryland. He serves on LCOR’s Executive Committee. Mr. Hard holds a B.A. from Lafayette College (1971) and an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania (1972). He joined the Philadelphia National Bank as Vice President of Real Estate. In 1981, he joined The Linpro Company (the predecessor to LCOR) as Partner, becoming a Vice President of LCOR in 1992, and an Executive Vice President and Principal in 1999.

Victoria Hartke, Director – Office of Leasing
National Capital Region, U.S. General Services Administration

Victoria R. Hartke is currently serving as the Director,Office of Leasing, for the General Services Administration, Public BuildingsService in the National Capital Region. NCRmanages 635 active leases for a total of 53M square feet and an annual rentroll exceeding $2B. Her prior GSApositions include, among others, Acting Regional Commissioner for the GreaterSouthwest Region of PBS, and Senior Advisor to the Chief Operating Officer.

Todd Hitt, Chief Executive Officer, Kiddar|Metz

Todd Hitt is the President and CEO of KiddarMetz LLC and its parent company Kiddar Group Holdings, Inc. Mr. Hitt has 25 years of investment and management experience in various privately held businesses covering all aspects of residential and commercial construction, real estate development and hotel and restaurant services. Hitt primarily focuses on identifying strategic urban infill locations in the Washington Metro Area that are ripe for redevelopment. In this capacity Hitt directs and negotiates the acquisition, raises the necessary equity, manages the entitlement process to maximize asset value, and then repositions ownership of the asset to allow for vertical development.

Norman Jemal, Principal & Senior Vice President, Douglas Development

Norman Jemal began his career in real estate in the early 1990’s. He serves as the Principal and Senior Vice President for Douglas Development Corporation and currently directs all of the leasing activity for the company and throughout his career has negotiated and leased over five million square feet with a cumulative value of over one billion dollars. As a principal with the company, Norman is involved in all aspects of the business including acquisitions and dispositions, development, finance and corporate strategic planning. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Washington, DC Economic Partnership, an organization that promotes business opportunities throughout the District and contributes to business retention and attraction activities, and on the Board of Trustees for Ford’s Theatre. He has also served on the Board of Directors for The Little Blue House, a family development center that serves as an oasis for low-income, poor and struggling families. Norman was appointed in June of 2012 to serve on the board of trustees of the Shakespeare Theatre Company for three years.

Kent Marquis, Principal, Stonebridge

Kent T. Marquis, a principal at Stonebridge, focuses on capitalization of all investment and development projects. His responsibilities include directing all financing efforts and management of equity matters with investors and capital partners.
 
 
 
Andrew McIntyre, SVP – Development & Construction, Penzance

Mr. McIntyre has more than 12 years of experience in various aspects of commercial office, residential, hotel and retail real estate development, entitlement, financing and construction management.  Prior to joining Penzance, he was Vice President of Development at The JBG Companies.  Before JBG, Mr. McIntyre worked as a Project Manager for PN Hoffman Construction Development and a Project Engineer for Clark Construction.  He is on the Board of Directors of the DC chapter of Habitat For Humanity and is an active member of ULI and NAIOP Northern Virginia.  Following service in the United States Army, Mr. McIntyre received his BS in Building Construction from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his MBA from Johns Hopkins University.

Bryn Merrey, First Vice President / Regional Manager, Marcus & Millichap 

Bryn Merrey is first vice president and regional manager of Marcus & Millichap’s Washington, D.C. office and has oversight of the firm’s Philadelphia, North Carolina and South Carolina operations. In June 2012, Mr. Merrey relocated to Washington, D.C. to expand the firm’s presence in the district, as well as Maryland and Virginia. Prior to relocating, he managed the firm’s Tampa office. During his tenure as regional manager, Tampa was ranked No. 1 in year-over-year growth within the firm, achieved significant market share gains and increased closings by a factor of more than 3.5 times in three years. In 2010, he was named regional manager of the year. Before managing the Tampa office, Mr. Merrey managed the firm’s Orlando office, served as sales manager of the Miami office and was an agent in the Ft. Lauderdale office, where he focused on multi-tenant shopping centers.

Trey Morgan, President – Mid-Atlantic Commercial Properties, Morgan Property Group

Mr. Morgan is responsible for the strategy and management of the company. As president, he has overseen the development of over $150 million dollars of commercial real estate, from single tenant retail projects to regional neighborhood shopping centers. Mr. Morgan also leads a team of brokerage and management specialists accounting for transactions and assets throughout the Southeast United States. Before joining Morgan Property Group, Mr. Morgan worked at Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. in Washington, D.C. in the Tenant Representation Group. He holds a B.S. from Northwestern University, where he graduated with honors, and an MBA from Duke University. Locally, Mr. Morgan is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), where he serves as Co-Chair of the Governmental Relations committee for the Carolinas, and he is a member of the Charlotte Region Commercial Board of REALTORS.  He also participated on the pastoral council of St. Matthew Catholic Church, his local parish.

William Norton, Regional Director, Northwestern Mutual Real Estate

Bill Norton graduated from the University of Rochester with a BA in Economics in 1972. In 1974 he graduated from the University of Michigan with an MBA in Real Estate and Finance. In addition, Mr. Norton has attended several courses offered by the Appraisal Institute and BOMA. He has been a speaker at a number of industry meetings, is a member of various real estate organizations, and is currently on the Board of Directors of DCBIA. He is a co-chair of DCBIA’s Capital Markets Group. Mr. Norton is the Regional Director of NML’s DC office, which covers 13 states in the Northeast and the District of Columbia. The DC office is NML’s largest office with over $7.0 billion in assets, approximately $5.3 billion in debt, and $1.7 billion in equity.

Michael Pedulla, Co-President, Cityline Partners

Michael helped establish Cityline Partners in 2010 in connection with the acquisition of a large portfolio of land and office buildings located in Tysons Corner. He leads the Cityline team in their strategic and new business initiatives, acquisition, development and asset management activities. Since 2003, Michael has worked with DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, where his responsibilities include sourcing, evaluating and executing a broad variety of opportunistic and value-add investment opportunities, financings and dispositions in the U.S. and Caribbean. Prior to joining DLJ RECP, he worked in real estate investment banking for Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse.

Al Pontius, SVP/National Director – Commercial Property Groups, Marcus & Millichap

Marcus & Millichap senior vice president Alan Pontius oversees the firm’s commercial property (office, industrial, retail) sales activities. He is based in San Francisco. Mr. Pontius began his career with Marcus & Millichap in 1985 as a sales associate and in that role he consistently ranked among the firm’s Top 25 associates. In 1993, Mr. Pontius was appointed regional manager of the Palo Alto office and under his leadership it became one of the top producing offices companywide. Mr. Pontius was promoted to first vice president in 2000. In 2002, he became a senior vice president and national director of Marcus & Millichap’s National Office and Industrial Properties Group and co-national director of the firm’s Net Leased Properties Group. Mr. Pontius was elected to the senior management team in 2007 and in 2010 was charged with oversight of the firm’s major commercial divisions. He is actively involved with NAIOP where he is regularly called upon to discuss national, regional and local commercial real estate investment trends. Mr. Pontius holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from San Francisco State University.

Nick Romito, Founder & CEO,VTS, Inc.

Nick Romito is the Founder and CEO of VTS, a cloud-based leasing platform, tailor-made for commercial office brokers, asset managers, and portfolio managers to comprehensively manage deal flow from a desktop or mobile device. As one of the fastest growing software companies in commercial real estate, VTS is utilized by the world’s top landlords. VTS has also received significant support from the national brokerage community, having been adopted by several firms including Jones Lang LaSalle, CBRE and Cushman and Wakefield. Currently operating in 14 markets across the United States, VTS will be aggressively expanding into the top-twenty markets.

Keith Sellars, President & CEO, Washington D.C. Economic Partnership

Keith J. Sellars, president & CEO for the Washington, DC Economic Partnership, has successfully led business attraction efforts to attract national and local retailers to the District of Columbia for the past 11 years. Under his leadership, WDCEP leads the efforts for the city’s tech sector programming, revamping small business programs including Entrepreneur Road Map, and initiating the tech start up mentor programs, Accelerate DC. Mr. Sellars’ professional associations include the International Council of Shopping Centers, Urban Land Institute, DC Building Industry Association, African American Real Estate Professionals (AAREP), and International Economic Development Council.

Timothy Steffan, SVP – Asset Management & Commercial Leasing, Macerich

As Senior Vice President, Asset Management and Commercial Leasing, Tim Steffan oversees asset management activities for the company’s Eastern region, which includes partner relationships, strategic objectives and performance metrics, budgeting and forecasting, return analysis/pro forma modeling on development projects, and other company initiatives including Parking Revenue. In addition, he leads the company’s commercial leasing ventures including Tysons Tower at Tysons Corner Center. Mr.Steffan joined Macerich following a successful 20-year career with Urban Retail Properties, most recently as Executive Vice President, Regional Asset Manager for Urban’s Eastern and Mid-Atlantic Region. In that position Mr. Steffan directed management, accounting, financial, operation, construction management and leasing functions for approximately 7 million square feet of retail, mixed-use and office properties in the mid-Atlantic.

Harmar Thompson, Senior Vice President, LCOR

Mr. Thompson is a Senior Vice President of LCOR with responsibility for sourcing and implementing new development and redevelopment opportunities in the Greater Washington Metropolitan region. With more than 15 years in the commercial real estate industry, his expertise encompasses a full spectrum of real estate activities including asset management, acquisitions, joint venture structuring, redevelopment/ground-up development, consulting, debt restructuring, and project financing for a full range of commercial property types. Prior to joining LCOR, Mr. Thompson was a Senior Vice President at Lowe Enterprises where he co-managed the Washington DC area office and directed the successful acquisition and implementation of the company’s East Coast real estate activities.

Brandon Weber, Founder & CEO, Hightower

Brandon Weber’s background and interests lie at the intersection of technology and commercial real estate. Prior to founding Hightower, Brandon was a First Vice President at CBRE where he represented institutional owners on the leasing of over 4mm square feet of office and biotech space. He began his career in software product development, first as a Program Manager at Microsoft developing Excel, and later at Zillow as a Senior Program Manager. He received 2 degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon and holds 5 patents in software design.

Paul Weinschenk, Managing Director & VP – Head of Retail Division, WRIT

Mr. Weinschenk joined WRIT in February 2013 as Managing Director and Vice President, Head of Retail Division. Prior to joining WRIT, he was Vice President, Retail at The Peterson Companies. During his 16 years there, he oversaw development of several of its most significant projects in the Washington metro region, including Fairfax Corner, Virginia Gateway, Frederick Crossing, and East Market at Fair Lakes, in total containing more than 1.9 million square feet of leasable area. Mr. Weinschenk’s work at Peterson also included anchor sales and leasing responsibilities for the shopping centers he developed, and he completed transactions in excess of 1.4 million square feet.

John Wilcox, Vice President, Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp.

R. John Wilcox II is vice president of Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. (MMCC). Located in the firm’s Manhattan office, Mr. Wilcox assists with managing MMCC’s day-to-day operations, including working with loan originators in the Northeast and Southeast offices. Prior to his position with MMCC, Mr. Wilcox was managing director and head of capital markets group for Savills, where he was responsible for integrated real estate finance transaction and advisory services, including debt and equity capital raises, cross-border equity raises, note sales and restructuring advisory services.

Dean Zang, First Vice President Investments/Senior Director – NRG, Marcus & Millichap

Dean Zang specializes in the acquisition and disposition of retail shopping centers in the Mid-Atlantic region and net-leased investments throughout the country. He joined the National Retail Group in 2003 and the following year partnered with Mark Taylor to form an industry-leading investment sales team, Taylor-Zang. The team has since expanded to include Derrick Dougherty, along with a talented support staff. Dean has successfully brokered the sale of over $2 billion in retail properties in 34 states across the country. He has established himself as one of the top retail agents in the firm, consistently ranking in the Top 30. He was recognized as Philadelphia Business Journal’s Rising Star Broker in 2008 and earned recognition as one of Marcus & Millichap’s Top 30 Agents overall, across all product types, in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Dean has built a large client base of notable institutional and private equity investors through his advisory approach to real estate brokerage.

Not Pictured:

• Barry Carty, Vice President – East Coast Acquisitions, Federal Realty
• Jeff Edelstein, Director, Roadside Development
• Nicolas Franzetti, Senior Vice President, ASB Real Estate Investment
• Victoria Hartke, ‎Acting Director – Leasing , U.S. General Services Administration
• Zach Wade, Principal, MRP Realty
• Stan Wall, Director – Real Estate & Station Planning, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority