Grassi & Co. announced that David C. Sobel, CPA, along with his staff of tax professionals, have joined the firm.
Sobel’s practice specializes in providing high-level tax consulting, including M&A and transactional tax services.
Prior to joining Grassi & Co., Sobel managed a successful boutique tax practice supporting the overall corporate tax functions at both large and closely held corporations ranging from SEC registrants to private equity portfolio companies.
With more than 27 years of corporate tax experience, he has also served as a senior tax advisor for several public companies and has worked at Big 4 firms where he provided clients with general practice and special acquisitions tax services.
Sobel completed his undergraduate degree and earned a BBA in Accounting from Hofstra University and studied advanced taxation at PACE University.
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Day Pitney announced that Craig Gianetti has joined the firm as partner in the Real Estate, Land Use and Environmental department.
His practice focuses on commercial and residential real estate transactional matters, land use and redevelopment, and construction and contract litigation.
In addition to his legal practice, Gianetti teaches a course at Rutgers University’s Center for Government Services and has been a guest speaker at the Kislak Real Estate Institute at Monmouth University.
Prior to entering private practice, Gianetti served as judicial clerk to the Honorable Eugene D. Serpentelli, Assignment Judge of the New Jersey Superior Court, Ocean County Law Division, where he assisted in the majority of land use and affordable housing matters in Ocean County.
He graduated magna cum laude from the Quinnipiac University School of Law and has a B.S. from Villanova University. He joins the firm from Giordano Halleran & Ciesla in Monmouth County, NJ.
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ERG Property Advisors has hired three new associates to its Investment Sales and Mortgage Brokerage Divisions.
Sherry Rivera joins ERG Property Advisors as Finance Division as a Capital Advisor with a focus on commercial properties.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Queens College and a Master’s Degree from New York University. She is a NYS Licensed Real Estate Salesperson and Mortgage Originator.
Rivera has also worked as a proprietor of a mortgage brokerage business.
Andrew Walsh joins ERG as an investment sales associate with an extensive background in commercial appraisal and asset management. He has also been involved in the development of condominiums and hotels.
Walsh has 10 years of experience in both residential and commercial brokerage and has maintained key relationships in the New York City real estate market.
Ling Yu joins ERG as an investment sales associate with an international real estate knowledge. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Trent University and a Master’s Degree in Real Estate from Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College.
Yu has worked as a commercial real estate leasing agent and a real estate analyst in New York City. She has also spent six months working on a hotel development project in Shanghai, China.
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Robin Judson Partners, an exclusive career placement agency for hedge fund, private equity and investment banking, has welcomed Erica Kim as managing director.
Previously, Kim served as the executive director, head of Human Capital for Arden Asset Management LLC where she managed strategy and implementation of human capital policies and talent management for their New York and London locations.
She has also served as a Human Resources, Facilities and Operations, at Colden Capital Management LLC. Kim also spent eight years at the Och-Ziff Capital Management Group.
Kim holds a Bachelor of Science in Television, Radio, and Film Management from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
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Ladder Capital Finance Holdings announced the appointment of George Kok as head of underwriting.
Kok joins Ladder from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he served as managing director and co-head of Real Estate Structured Finance. Prior to his tenure at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Kok led conduit programs at Merrill Lynch Mortgage Lending and co-led Morgan Stanley’s conduit program. During his career, Kok has overseen the origination of over $30 billion of commercial real estate transactions and has 23 years of investment, credit, and asset management experience. Kok earned a B. S. in Engineering from Cornell University and a M.B.A. in Finance and Real Estate Finance from Columbia Business School.
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First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. named Jeanneen V. Griffin to serve as first vice president and team leader, Commercial Real Estate Lending for the bank’s New England and Tri-State Regions.
Griffin will manage a sizable commercial real estate loan portfolio and lead an experienced team of CRE lenders focused on developing business with middle market and institutional owners/developers throughout Connecticut, New York Metro, Westchester County and Northern New Jersey.
Target transactions range from $5 million to $100 million for properties including multifamily, office, grocery-anchored and single credit tenant retail, and warehouse/distribution.
Griffin joins First Niagara from People’s United Bank where she served as a senior commercial lending officer. She also held commercial lending roles with GE Commercial Finance, Webster Bank, and CRIIMI MAE, Inc.
Earlier in her career she held positions at Paul Revere Life Insurance Company, CIGNA Investments, Inc. and Barclays American Business Credit.
Griffin holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic, CT.
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WeiserMazars LLP announced that Joseph Strickland, Jr. has joined its New York City office as director and will lead their Cost Segregation Practice.
Strickland brings more than 30years of experience in architectural design, construction management, investment tax credit, and cost segregation studies.
A registered architect, his qualifications will expand the firm’s cost segregation and related real estate consulting capabilities across the firm in support of the Tax, Real Estate and Consulting groups.
Prior to joining WeiserMazars, Strickland was director at Geller & Company. Over his professional career, he has led a number of cost segregation practices at national and international firms such as Arthur D. Little Valuation, Deloitte, and Arthur Andersen.
He served as a designer, project manager and owner’s representative on a wide variety of regional and national projects in the public and private sectors.
Strickland holds a Masters of Architecture degree from Carnegie-Mellon University, a Master of Education and a BA in Sociology from Lehigh University.
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Lee NYC, the New York office of Lee & Associates, has added to its office and retail executive teams with the addition of three new brokers.
Len Zimmerman and Richard Rosenthal joined as executive managing directors and principals in the Lee NYC Office group; Harris Bulow joined as a managing director,specializing in tenant and landlord representation as part of Lee NYC Retail.
Len Zimmerman joins Lee & Associates NYC after five years as a vice president at CBRE, where he was an office leasing broker.
Before that, he was a senior managing director with Grubb & Ellis. Zimmerman has been in the real estate
industry for over 15 years, following a career that included national and international business acquisitions and education.
Richard Rosenthal joins Lee NYC with over 45 years of commercial real estate experience. He will be responsible for strategic real estate planning and implementation, transaction structuring, property sales, and landlord and tenant representation.
Prior to joining Lee NYC, he was with PBS, but for 40 years he was a senior managing director with Grubb & Ellis.
He has closed numerous major transactions throughout his career and has garnered many industry awards for his contributions to the profession.
Harris Bulow, the newest broker to the Lee NYC Retail team, joined as a managing director. He will focus on retail brokerage and represent landlords as well astenants.
Bulow’s previous experience includes over 10 years in the real estate industry, first with Murray Hill Properties, and most recently with Signature Partners.
Prior to starting his real estate career in 2002, he was a founding member of a beverage company and remains one of its investors.
Bulow has represented international, public and corporate clients throughout Manhattan.
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Law firm McCarter & English, LLP announced that Simone Wilson-Brito has rejoined the firm as a partner in the Real Estate practice in Newark.
Since 2008, Wilson-Brito was real estate counsel with Rockefeller Group Development Corporation (RGDC).
Her practice will focus primarily on complex commercial real estate transactions with a concentration in the financing, leasing and acquisition of real property.
While at the RGDC, Wilson-Brito handled financing and real estate transactions for the company and its affiliates. Her responsibilities included negotiating leases, building contracts, licenses and other transaction documents relative to the company’s development, management and ownership operations in New York, Florida, South Carolina, Utah and New Jersey.
Admitted to the New Jersey and New York bars, Wilson-Brito earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School and her B.S. from Vanderbilt University.
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Woodmont Properties has added new senior management to its property and asset management division with the hiring of Marla Posey as regional property manager for its apartment portfolio.
Prior to joining Woodmont, Posey was a regional property manager for Morgan Properties and Edgewood Properties where she oversaw large portfolios of apartment communities.
Posey’s hiring coincides with Woodmont’s recent appointment as asset/property manager for Lowe Enterprises’ Abitare’ Apartments, a 317-unit luxury apartment complex in Voorhees, N.J. The community, located adjacent to the Voorhees Town Center, is planned for expansion to 425 residences.
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Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP announced the addition of Michael Carnevale as a tax partner in its growing Real Estate practice.
A Certified Public Accountant and licensed attorney (JD), Michael has more than 29 years of experience, including more than 15 years of experience as a tax consulting partner and practice leader with a Big 4 accounting firm.
Carnevale specializes in sophisticated tax consulting, mergers and acquisitions, and divestitures across multiple industries, while also providing tax compliance and consulting, and business advisory services to real estate owners and developers, private equity funds, hedge funds, and real estate investment trusts.
With the addition of Carnevale, Anchin has a roster of 54 partners and principals.
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Francis Cauffman, the award-winning architecture firm, announced that Michael Bonomo has been promoted to firmwide principal, Interior Environments.
For the last 15 years, Bonomo has designed award-winning workspaces for prominent national and international clients. His work includes retail, commercial, and institutional projects with a strong focus in New York.
Bonomo’s interior design portfolio features clients like Aol, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bloomberg L.P., New York University Langone Medical Center, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Spotify, and The Vitamin Shoppe.
Bonomo collaborated with Francis Cauffman principal John Campbell and furniture manufacturer Teknion on Phonebooths & Mailboxes, which details the rise of the open, mobile workspace.
Bonomo has a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College in Chicago. He is NCIDQ certified and a Professional Member of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA).
