Barden N. Gale has joined Mack Real Estate Group (MREG) as vice cairman and member of the investment committee of MREG, the new real estate investment enterprise founded this year by William Mack, Richard Mack, and Stephen Mack.
MREG invests capital in a variety of real estate strategies for the Mack Family, as well as partnering with institutional investors and high net worth individuals.
Headquartered in New York, MREG has offices and Los Angeles and Seattle through its Mack Urban affiliate, and anticipates opening a London office in 2014. The company recently completed the development of 50 North 5th Street, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and acquired a six-acre development site in Downtown Los Angeles in partnership with AECOM Capital.

Gale was most recently chief executive officer of JER Partners. He joined JER Partners in 2009 from Starwood Capital Group, where he served as vice chairman of real estate.
Prior to Starwood, he was chief investment officer for Real Estate at ABP Investments U.S., Inc., the investment arm of Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP (now APG), one of the world’s largest pension funds.
Gale also held investment banking roles at Salomon Brothers, Inc. in London and New York and at Nesbitt Burns Securities in New York.
He also was a principal of a real estate development company in New York and was a practicing attorney.
Gale received his B.A. from Union College, his M.A. from the University of London, and his J.D. from Columbia University.
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Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) Global Corporate Services has named T. Brent Barnes senior managing director, Global Healthcare Services.
He will work with executive managing directors Garth Hogan and Todd Perman to assist healthcare clients in creating solutions that reduce operating cost, and maximize the value, of hospitals and other medical office properties.
Joining from CBRE’s Healthcare Services Group, Barnes has two decades of experience in development, acquisitions and project management of healthcare and other commercial real estate projects.
He has developed, leased and managed nearly one million square feet of new healthcare projects and has been part of healthcare real estate transactions valued at more than $515 million.
In addition, as regional vice president for one of the largest healthcare development firms in the country, he oversaw the pursuit, relationship and client management of several regional healthcare systems.
Earlier in his career, he served as director of development for a national office REIT.
Barnes earned a degree in business administration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
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Community Investment Strategies, Inc. (CIS) has named Diane Kinnane the executive vice president of its new CIS-Disaster Recovery (CIS-DR) division.
CIS-DR will assist municipalities in their rebuilding efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy’s devastation.
Kinnane most recentlyserved as the New Jersey Deputy State Director of the President Obama Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force.
Previously, she held a multitude of leadership positions within the State of New Jersey’s Department of Community Affairs for more than 34 years, including her role as manager, Neighborhood Programs.
Kinnane also created an Indoor Environmental Hazards Unit focusing on lead. A licensed planner in New Jersey, she earned her M.C.R.P. degree from Rutgers University.
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Sabal Financial Group announced the appointment of Marguerite (“Midge”) Brogan as managing director in New York.
Brogan will manage business development efforts and assist with the firm’s commercial real estate loan transaction services business.
Brogan joins Sabal Financial Group from Park Praedium, a real estate advisory firm she founded and led. Prior to her role at Park Praedium, the most significant span of Brogan’s career was spent at Lehman Brothers, most recently as a managing director in the Global Real Estate Group.
During her 17-year tenure at Lehman Brothers, Brogan was directly responsible for more than $5 billion in origination of senior debt, mezzanine debt, equity investments, and the acquisition of third party whole loans.
She served as a deal manager, head of the Loan Acquisitions Group, and as co-head of Lehman Brothers Bank Capital Crossing Division.
As a member of the Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREFC) High-Yield Steering Committee, Brogan works with a variety of national players routinely and seeks to give back as a mentor with W/X New York Women Executives in Real Estate, an organization for senior level women in real estate.
Brogan obtained her bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Boston College, and her MBA in Finance and Real Estate from George Washington University.
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Raymond R. Savino has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Housing Partnership Development Corporation.
Savino is chief financial officer of the development group of the DeMatteis Organizations.
Savino has been central to nearly $1 billion of project financing as well as the formation of several public/private development initiatives.
Prior to joining DeMatteis, Savino was vice president for New York Public Finance at CS First Boston, and, in that role, served as a Trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission of the City of New York.
Earlier, he was chief financial officer of the New York State Urban Development Corporation (now Empire State Development Corporation).
He also served as CFO of Times Square Redevelopment Corporation; was a financial analyst for Special Housing in the NYC Mayor’s Office and, before that, at The Chase Manhattan Bank as a financial analyst.
Savino received an MBA in Finance from Bernard Baruch College of the City University of New York, and a BA in Philosophy from Fordham University.
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The Lightstone Group announced the hiring of Scott J. Avram as senior vice president of development.
Avram will be responsible for the oversight of the development of the 58-story, 475-unit, Fulton Street luxury residential project in Manhattan and the 700-unit Carroll Gardens all-rental, residential development in Brooklyn, among other projects.
He joins Lightstone from Toll Brothers, where he worked for the past nine years. There, he was responsible for the operational oversight of Toll Brothers’ City Living Division.
Notable projects he managed at Toll Brothers include The Touraine, 400 Park Avenue South, 110 Third Avenue and 1110 Park Avenue, all in Manhattan, and One Northside Piers and Two Northside Piers in Williamsburg.
Avram joined Toll Brothers in 2004 as a manager of large scale suburban single-family home golf course developments in New Jersey.
Before transferring to the New York Division of Toll Brothers, Avram also managed high-rise urban development, including condominium conversions, adaptive reuse, parking garages, and new high-rise developments in Hoboken and Jersey City, NJ.
He graduated with Honors from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business Honors Program and graduated with Honors from New York University with a Master’s of Science in Real Estate.
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Sherif Elshoubri, an appraiser with Jerome Haims Realty, was recently awarded an MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute.
Elshoubri, a native of New Jersey and a Certified General Real Estate Appraiser in the states of New Jersey and New York, joins a select group of top real estate appraisers who have completed the rigorous requirements of the MAI designation.
Elshoubri has over six years of commercial real estate appraisal and consulting experience and has appraised hundreds of high end residential and commercial properties including shopping centers, mixed-use, medical and industrial properties.
His experience also includes ground leases and partial interests, office, hotel and retail, focusing on valuation, litigation support, financial feasibility studies, discounted cash flow analysis, estate tax and planning and tax appeal. Additionally, he has also done appraisal reports for private investors, lending institutions, educational institutions, corporations, attorneys, accountants, estates, developers and governmental agencies.
Prior to joining Jerome Haims Realty in 2012, Sherif was an appraiser with Preferred Property, Inc. and a New Jersey state licensed real estate agent with Better Homes of New Jersey.
Sherif has a double major with a BS in Biological Sciences and a BA in Eastern Studies from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
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Advantage Group announced that Paul Spateri has joined Mortgage Advantage, the residential and commercial mortgage brokerage affiliate of The Advantage Group, as a business development and mortgage specialist.
Previously regional manager at South Fork Funding Inc., a Spateri began his mortgage career 15 years ago as a mortgage originator with Long Island Mortgage Resources.
He later became a regional sales manager for Long Island and New York City at PHH Mortgage/Coldwell Banker Home Loans, which in 2004 acquired Long Island Mortgage Resources.
While at PHH Mortgage/Coldwell Banker, Spateri was the agency’s top producing mortgage originator for four consecutive years and was named to Broker Magazine’s list of Top 100 Mortgage Brokers in the United States, ranked at No. 32.