Jeffrey Heller, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the firm’s New Jersey office, announced that Kenneth Porreca has joined the company in New Jersey.

Porreca becomes a Principal of Avison Young. Based in the firm’s Morristown office, he will lead business development efforts in Bergen and Hudson counties.
Porreca, who previously served as a managing director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, is one of the industry’s most consistent producers, having achieved Costar’s Power Broker award for four consecutive years.
He brings a decade of commercial real estate experience to, having completed office leasing assignments for notable companies such as Locus Telecommunications, Statements Solutions Inc., Kamson Corporation, Curtis Wright, Bacardi, Hanjin Shipping and the General Services Administration (GSA).
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Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced that seniors housing and healthcare finance experts Jeffrey Ringwald and William Jackson have joined its multifamily finance group.
Ringwald, senior vice president and managing director, and Jackson, senior vice president, have originated a combined $2 billion of seniors housing loans across the country through a wide variety of capital sources including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Prior to joining Walker & Dunlop, Ringwald and Jackson were both employed by Arbor Commercial Mortgage, LLC.
As Senior Vice President of Seniors Housing & Healthcare, Ringwald led the origination effort and strategic direction of the seniors housing and healthcare platform.
Jackson served as Vice President and was responsible for originating and structuring seniors housing and healthcare debt for borrowers across the United States.
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AECOM Capital, the investment and development arm of AECOM, announced the appointment of Ted Fentin to serve as a managing director.
Fentin will be responsible for the origination and execution of real estate projects for AECOM Capital’s West Coast platform.
Fentin has more than 17 years of experience in the real estate industry, including a role as senior vice president with CBRE in the debt and structured finance group.
Prior to his time at CBRE, Fentin spent seven years with DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners, a division of Credit Suisse, where he was responsible for West Coast acquisitions.
Fentin also spent time with law firm Latham & Watkins in its Los Angeles office, where he practiced law in the finance and real estate department.
He received his Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School, a Juris Doctor from University of Michigan Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania.
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AECOM Capital announced the hiring of Bill Smith to serve as executive vice president of design and construction, responsible for managing the design and construction of all AECOM Capital developments nationally.
Since AECOM Capital’s founding in January 2013, it has invested in 14 projects across residential, commercial and Smith brings more than 25 years of experience in the real estate development industry with extensive expertise in conceiving and delivering complex mixed-use urban projects.
Prior to joining AECOM Capital, Smith spent 17 years at MGM Resorts International as president of the MGM MIRAGE Design Group in Las Vegas, and led and completed the master planning, design and construction of the $9 billion, 18 million square foot CityCenter in Las Vegas.
That project, completed in partnership with Tishman Construction, an AECOM company, is the largest privately financed project in U.S. history.
Prior to joining MGM, Smith served as a partner with Rouse & Associates (now Liberty Property Trust) responsible for the design and construction of Liberty Place, a US$810-million mixed-use project in downtown Philadelphia.
He is a graduate of Temple University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture.
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BEB Real Estate (BEB) has appointed Thomas Landherr, C.P.A., C.G.M.A as chief financial officer.

Landherr will oversee financing, accounting and reporting for BEB’s operating, development and property management activities. The company has a real estate and investment portfolio of over $340 million in assets throughout the East Coast.
Previously, Landherr served as the chief financial officer of Corigin (formerly Coalco NY).
His prior positions include vice president and director of development accounting at Douglaston Development in Douglaston, NY; vice president and controller at Reckson Construction; and controller at Triangle Equities.
Landherr received a BBA degree in accounting from Hofstra University.
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The New York Mortgage Coaltion (NYMC) has promoted Rebecca Senn to executive director.
Senn first joined NYMC in 2012. In her previous roles she oversaw the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Housing Counseling Grant Program for a total of 11 sub-grantees.
She also worked as NYMC’s director of compliance, program manager and program assistant.
Senn holds a B.A. with honors distinction from Centenary College, with a major in political and governmental affairs and sociology and a concentration in human services.
She earned her Master’s in urban studies and planning from Fordham University, with a concentration in community development, qualitative research and ethnographic studies.
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Savills Studley announced that Jordan Weiss has joined the firm as a Managing Director. He was previously at Cushman & Wakefield.
Weiss has joined the team of Executive Managing Director John Mambrino and Senior Managing Director Nick Farmakis. He will be primarily responsible for business development and executing unique, creative, tenant-focused real estate strategies on behalf of new and existing clients.
With nearly ten years of experience, Weiss has developed a distinguished client roster including, Mitsui & Co. USA, Paddle8, Vakifbank, YSL, BCBG Max Azria, Savoy Bank and Partner Fund Management.
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Gettry Marcus CPA, P.C. announced that Eric Lerner has joined the firm, and is based out of the firm’s Woodbury, New York headquarters.
Lerner, CPA, is the Director of Quality Control, and a member of the Accounting and Audit Group.
He has over 35 years of experience providing accounting, auditing, litigation and forensic, and tax services for clients ranging from large public companies to middle market closely-held businesses.
In his role at Gettry Marcus, Lerner directs the technical review and quality control department by overseeing the risk and technical review of all attest services.
Prior to joining Gettry Marcus, he worked at Shanholt Glassman Klein Kramer & Co. in New York City.
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Signature Bank announced the appointment of two private client banking teams.
Jason Birnbaum was named Group Director and Senior Vice President, Meredith Epstein was appointed to the role of Associate Group Director and Vice President and Vincent Pensato will serve as Senior Client Associate.
This team joins from First Republic Bank.
Jason Birnbaum brings nearly 20 years of financial services experience to his new role; 10 of which were spent at First Republic Bank.
Most recently, he served as Senior Managing Director – Private Banking and Lending, specializing in catering to clients engaged in the private equity and hedge fund arenas as well as those in real estate. Previously, he was a Vice President at JPMorgan Chase in New York City.
Meredith Epstein spent six years at First Republic as a Senior Preferred Banker, where she primarily handled business development.
Vincent Pensato was most recently an Associate – Relationship Management, where he handled account management, overseeing client relationships as well as mortgage underwriting and sales.
Additionally, a five-member team joins Signature Bank’s Greenwich private client banking office from Citibank, N.A.’s commercial banking group. The team is led by newly appointed Group Director and Senior Vice President Jonathan DeMarco.
Armand Frusciante, Andrea Lawson and Eduardo Missura were each named Group Director and Senior Vice President, and the team will be supported by Louisa Morrone, who will serve as Senior Client Associate.
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Arbor Commercial Mortgage announced the enhancement of its HUD/FHA Lending Group.

With more than 30 years of commercial mortgage originations experience, Jeffrey Allshouse will be responsible for growing Arbor’s nationwide HUD/FHA loan originations platform.
Prior to joining Arbor, Allshouse held senior leadership positions at Prudential Mortgage Capital’s HUD multifamily/healthcare lending unit.
More recently, he spearheaded HUD-insured hospital originations at Wells Fargo Multifamily Capitaln.
Allshouse earned his Master of Business Administration in Real Estate and Construction Management from the University of Denver and his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Finance
from the University of Michigan.

A 30-year commercial real estate expert, Jeffrey Ross will be responsible for managing Arbor’s FHA multifamily, seniors housing and healthcare operational staff for Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) and LEAN (seniors housing/healthcare) loan production.
Ross previously worked for Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital and, before that, he was COO and Chief Underwriter for Great Lakes Financial Group.
Ross received his Master of Business Administration from Baldwin-Wallace College and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from John Carroll University