Cushman & Wakefield announced that Bayne Porter has joined the firm as executive director in the Industrial Services Group. Porter, who was previously part of a top-producing industrial real estate services team at CBRE, will represent corporate occupiers throughout the Southeast and North America.
From his base in Cushman & Wakefield’s Atlanta and Orlando, Fla., offices, Porter will help the Industrial Services group grow a specialized national Build-to-Suit practice group focused on account management, build-to-suit services and occupier building acquisitions. He will be part of the Cushman & Wakefield BTS group’s leadership team.
As part of CBRE’s top industrial team, Porter completed more than 100 million square feet in transactions valued at $5 billion.
In the past 18 months, Porter has completed seven transactions totaling approximately 2.4 million square feet and valued at more than $144 million, representing BMW, Kuehne + Nagel and Mercedes in the acquisition of facilities in Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Redlands, Calif.; Greer, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Tuscaloosa, Ala.
His previous commercial real estate experience included a marketing and development role for a major Southeast U.S. real estate developer and a marketing and operational role for a regional industrial and office general contractor.
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Massey Knakal Realty Services announced that Betty Castro has joined the firm as Director of Operations for the Brooklyn and Queens offices. She will work closely with Senior Management to develop and execute plans relating to the strategic operating initiatives of the organization, specifically in the Brooklyn and Queens offices.
Betty comes to Massey Knakal with over twenty years of success in strategic growth, business development and team building. She has a successful track record of innovating and implementing sales and marketing plans that exceed revenue goals and drive bottom line profitability.
Most recently, Betty was Vice President of Sales & Marketing at First Empire Securities, a full-service institutional broker-dealer in Hauppaugue, NY. In this role, she developed and executed a strategic plan to take the firm to the next level, while overseeing the entire sales effort, marketing, trading desk, loan department, Financial Strategies Group and CD Funding Desk.
She led the firm’s recruiting efforts and developed a sales and marketing plan to position the firm as a solutions provider and grow into new target markets. She designed and implemented strategic sales seminars, phone coaching sessions, evaluation and accountability methods, and spearheaded the development of a fully interactive company website with features for target marketing.
Earlier, Betty was Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Lawrence/Tensator, an industrial manufacturing company in Bay Shore, NY. She designed and implemented comprehensive sales and marketing strategies to increase market share and profitability. Betty also spent seven years at Edison Properties, LLC, as Sales Manager for Manhattan Mini Storage and Vice President of Acquisitions for Edison ParkFast.
Betty received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing and Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business. She is a Certified Financial Planner and has passed the Series 7, 63 and 24 Principal. Betty is fluent in Spanish and Farsi.
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Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. has announced that Carolyn Payne joined the firm’s Manhattan office, according to MMCC’s eastern region vice president, John Wilcox. Payne will be responsible for sourcing, underwriting and obtaining financing for commercial real estate with a focus on hospitality business.
Prior to joining MMCC, Payne served as senior vice president of commercial real estate finance with HKS Capital Partners LLC. She began her career in site selection for the multi-national chain Burger King Corp. and then moved to asset management and liquidity financing for the national life and health insurance company John Alden Financial Corp.
In this capacity, Payne was responsible for CRE financial analysis and due diligence leading to sale leaseback agreements, acquisitions, dispositions and leasing transactions. She later moved to commercial real estate brokerage with Cushman & Wakefield. There she increased her ability to analyze transactions to maximize returns on investments and understand the needs of her clients.
Payne’s education includes a Bachelor of Science degree and an M.B.A. from the University at Buffalo and Real Estate Program at New York University.
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Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp. has promoted Christopher Marks and Kyle Young in the firm’s New York office, according to MMCC’s eastern region vice president, John Wilcox.
Marks joined MMCC in 2009 as an associate. He has more than seven years of commercial real estate finance experience and has financed more than 200 commercial real estate transactions in the New York metro area. Prior to joining MMCC, Marks served as a senior loan officer with Velocity Commercial Capital. He was also a loan analyst and sales manager at Capital One Financial.
Young joined the firm in 2012 as an associate. He specializes in financing commercial real estate transactions in the New York metropolitan area. Prior to joining MMCC, Young held the lead web content manager position at Allstate Insurance, co-founded a toffee company called Dixie’s Candies, and co-founded the Diamond Lake Investment Club. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he earned a Master of Business Administration degree.
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Empire State Properties announced the appointment of Dennis J. Duden as General Manager, a new position at the growing company.
Duden brings a breadth of experience from his years with Marriott’s corporate housing brand, first as their Northern California General Manager and then as the North-East Regional General Manager. While he led the North-East Region, it was named the 2008 Marriott Brand Market of The Year, and its sales exceeded $25 million.
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Massey Knakal Realty Services announced that Fahri Ozturk has joined the firm as a Director of Sales, focusing on New Jersey’s Hudson County.
Prior to Massey Knakal, Fahri was an Investment Associate at Arsenal Real Estate Partners, in Morristown, NJ. In this role, he carried out various responsibilities in acquisitions, dispositions, asset management, and portfolio management. He served as asset manager for office and multifamily investments, prepared property strategic plans and reviewed potential opportunities.
Fahri monitored leasing activity with third party brokers and interacted with operating partners to manage the development process. He also approved leases, operating budgets, and capital budgets, prepared internal appraisals and performed due diligence, market research, underwriting.
Earlier, Fahri worked as an Asset Manager and as an analyst at Thor Equities in New York, NY, where he directly worked with the CEO and the CFO. He served as asset manager for several retail and office properties. He prepared investment performance analyses and financial management reports for fund and non-fund assets and projected cash flow, distributions, and capital calls.
He prepared and analyzed property strategic plans and made strategic investment recommendations to the executive board. He also held various accounting positions at Broadway Partners, Macklowe Properties, and New Plan Excel Realty Trust, Inc in New York.
Fahri earned his Master of Science degree in Real Estate Finance and Investments from New York University and his Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance and Investments from Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business. He is fluent in Turkish.
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Kent M. Swig, President of Helmsley Spear, LLC, and Swig Equities, LLC announced that Jonathan J. Dean has been named as Senior Vice President and Director of Leasing at Helmsley Spear in addition to his role and responsibilities at Swig Equities. Mr. Dean brings with him over 25 years of commercial real estate experience in New York City with top tier firms including Cushman & Wakefield and Jack Resnick & Sons.
As Senior Vice President and Director of Leasing, Mr. Dean will be responsible for the leasing activity of all commercial office brokers for Helmsley Spear and directly supervise the commercial leasing activities of the firm’s brokers.
Prior to joining Helmsley Spear and Swig Equities, Mr. Dean served as Managing Director of Leasing at Jack Resnick & Sons and was responsible for the leasing and tenant relations for nine office buildings totaling 3.5 million square feet and completed 620,000 square feet of leases in over 35 lease transactions.
Mr. Dean began his career at Cushman & Wakefield, where he gained experience in both landlord and tenant representation. He leased in excess of 2.8 million square feet in over 400 lease transactions and attained the title of Senior Director. In 1993, Mr. Dean was the recipient of Cushman & Wakefield’s Top Producer Salesperson Award in its downtown Manhattan office and was named a member of the Million Dollar Club for the year 2000.
Mr. Dean graduated from the University of Richmond with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.
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Taconic Investment Partners announced that it has appointed Peter Febo Chief Operating Officer.
As Chief Operating Officer, Febo plays an integral role in the implementation of Taconic’s business plan, directing the company’s 85-person in-house team and communicating with all asset, development and construction managers to ensure due diligence and strategies are in place. In this capacity, Febo oversees residential, commercial and retail property development; construction projects and commercial and residential asset management, including Taconic Management Company, Taconic’s wholly-owned property management and leasing subsidiary. Febo reports directly to co-CEOs Charles Bendit and Paul Pariser.
Prior to joining Taconic, Febo was the regional vice president for the New York-New Jersey metro region at Home Properties, overseeing the development and management of a 44-property, 8,500-unit portfolio valued at more than $1 billion. Prior to that, he was the Director of Investments for Midwest and East Coast assets at AvalonBay Communities and Senior Property Manager at Tishman Speyer Properties, where he was responsible for the redevelopment of 666 Fifth Avenue.
Febo holds a Bachelors of Science in accounting from the John Wiley School of Business at the State University of New York, Geneseo.
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American Realty Capital Properties, Inc. announced the appointment of Richard A. Silfen as General Counsel and Executive Vice President.
With more than 25 years of experience in corporate and securities law, Mr. Silfen will join ARCP after heading the Capital Markets Group at Philadelphia-based Duane Morris LLP, where he has served as partner. While at Duane Morris LLP, Mr. Silfen has advised numerous companies with regard to complex mergers and acquisition transactions and capital markets transactions, including several real estate investment trusts.
Specifically, Mr. Silfen represented ARCP during its respective mergers with American Realty Capital Trust III, Inc. and American Realty Capital Trust IV, Inc., as well as Topaz Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s stockholders in a sale to Sanofi-Pasteur and Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. in a $1.0 billion public offering of its senior notes.
Mr. Silfen is highly experienced in advising companies in connection with private equity investments in publicly traded and privately owned issuers, senior, high-yield, mezzanine and other debt issuances using complex structures, and restructurings of multi-layer debt.
