Lindsay Ornstein and Stephen Powers have left Transwestern to set up their own certified woman-owned business catering to “social-minded, mission-driven clients.”
The pair – who have completed more than 15 million square feet of real estate transactions for nonprofit, educational and corporations during their careers – have founded OPEN Impact Real Estate LLC to serve clients across the United States.
And they have formed “an exclusive affiliation” with Transwestern, in which clients of each firm will be able to access the services of both firms.
“I am thrilled to lead this new impact real estate company that will provide world-class real estate solutions to organizations committed to hiring a firm that reflects their values,” said Ornstein.
“Throughout our careers, helping nonprofits and socially minded companies craft and implement real estate solutions in support of their values and mission has been foundational to our reputation as real estate experts, and we are thrilled to announce this new platform to deepen that commitment,” said added Powers.
“We fully support OPEN Impact Real Estate, not only as a woman-owned business enterprise but also as a leader in the real estate community,” said Bruce Ford, Transwestern’s East Region President. “Transwestern clients that want to hire a WBE/MWBE will have the opportunity to work with OPEN while continuing to benefit from Transwestern’s robust platform of supporting services.”
Ornstein has nearly 20 years of commercial real estate experience and founded Transwestern’s New York office in 2011.
Powers has spent the past 17 years of his career exclusively working on behalf of nonprofits. A partner in Transwestern’s New York office, he led the national nonprofit practice and was named a Occupier Services Top Producer for the firm nationally last year.
Creating a woman-owned business with links to a giant such as Transwestern will given OPEN access to a growing volume of business tied to corporate and civic diversity goals. By law, federal government agencies must allocate a share of their business to minority or women owned business. More and more corporations also seek out minority and women-owned business as part of their own diversity initiatives.
In 1996, Jodi Pulice saw the opportunities on the horizon when she founded JRT Realty Service and allied her firm with Cushman & Wakefield. Her company has grown to become the nation’s largest certified Minority- and Woman- Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) commercial real estate firm by meeting industry-wide supplier diversity initiatives.
Transwestern’s clients include many of the nation’s leading nonprofit organizations and corporations, including The Robin Hood Foundation, Children’s Aid, KIPP Public Charter Schools, Sheltering Arms, Good Shephard, Relay Graduate School, Zeta Charter Schools, Goodwill, Democracy Prep Charter Schools, Selfhelp, City Year, and the National Museum of Mathematics. Their corporate clients include Advent International, LUMA Partners, Eurazeo, Brause Realty and JPMorgan Chase.
