First Nationwide Title Agency announced that long-time commercial real estate veteran Fern Haughton-Owens, with more than 40 years of experience, has joined the firm as Title Officer/Senior Commercial Reader. She will be working closely with the agency’s underwriting team.
Prior to joining First Nationwide, Ms. Haughton-Owens served as a reader, senior title officer and office manager for LTIC Assoc., Inc., a premier title agency specializing in commercial transactions, condominium conversions, and urban renewal transactions.
She has had posts with several underwriters, serving as a senior title officer overseeing major Manhattan commercial and multi-dwelling transactions, Brooklyn commercial and multi-use projects, and upstate shopping malls.
Ms. Haughton-Owens attended the Real Estate Institute of New York University.
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Meringoff Properties announced the expansion of its property management practice with the addition of Keith C. Colton, a seasoned real estate management professional, who joins as Vice President.
Coming from a management background for both large corporate and mid-sized commercial office environments, Mr. Colton is charged with oversight of Meringoff Properties’ and Himmel + Meringoff’s over two million-square-foot commercial office portfolio.
Prior to joining, Mr. Colton served as Property Manager for RFR Realty, where he oversaw capital improvement programs, operations and repositioning, among other responsibilities, of Class A office and mixed-use buildings within the company’s Manhattan portfolio. Earlier, he held management positions with Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and Brookfield Properties.
A member of BOMA, Mr. Colton holds the organization’s designation of Certified Real Property Administrator (RPA). In the philanthropic arena, he serves as a committee member for the Starlight Children’s Foundation. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.
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Brixmor Property Group announced that seasoned commercial real estate professional Ryan Guheen has joined the Company as Senior Vice President, Redevelopment & Strategic Leasing.
Mr. Guheen will spearhead the Company’s ongoing efforts to relocate traditional mall-based retailers into its open-air centers. He will also work closely with the executive management team to identify value creation opportunities at the asset level and forge new retailer partnerships. With more than a decade of industry experience, Mr. Guheen has a diverse background in asset management, project development and leasing spanning a variety of asset types and brings to the Company a wealth of longstanding retailer relationships.
Mr. Guheen was previously a Senior Vice President with commercial real estate firm Olshan Properties. In this role, he was responsible for managing the development, construction and leasing activities across the firm’s diverse portfolio of retail shopping centers, mixed-use, hotel and multi-family properties. These efforts included identifying a more than $250 million pipeline of development and value creation projects. Prior to joining Olshan Properties, Mr. Guheen served as a Development Manager and Project Coordinator at Kimco Realty Corporation.
Mr. Guheen graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in economics from Santa Clara University.
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WiredScore has announced the addition of Shannon Shaw as the firm’s Account Manager.
Prior to joining the firm, Shaw served as a sales assistant at Halstead Property in New York. Shaw previously served in marketing with TTR Sotheby’s International Realty in Washington, D.C., as well as with the Aberdeen Ironbirds minor league baseball team in Aberdeen, MD. Shaw holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
Shaw will assist in WiredScore’s day-to-day client development, outreach and support for Wired Certification. She will be involved with helping WiredScore partners promote their Wired Certification status and serve as a primary contact in growing the WiredScore service through partnerships in cities across the US.
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Simmy Weber has joined the New York Tri-State office of Cushman & Wakefield as a Senior Director.
Mr. Weber previously served as a Senior Managing Director at Norman Bobrow & Co., where he was named Broker of the Year in 2004, 2006, 2009 and 2012. While employed there, he leased a total of more than 500,000 square feet in such areas as Grand Central, Downtown, Midtown, Plaza District, Chelsea and Long Island City.
Previous to his tenure at Norman Bobrow, Mr. Weber worked with Helmsley-Spear, where he specialized in leasing and investment sales in Bergen County.
A graduate of Yeshiva University, Mr. Weber is fluent in three languages.
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Mission Capital Advisors announced a new hire and the relocation of one of its top executives.
A veteran of the commercial real estate and securities industries, Terry Strongin joins Mission Capital’s Palm Beach Gardens office as a Director in the Debt and Equity Finance Group.
Additionally, Rob Beyer, also a Director in Mission Capital’s Debt and Equity Finance Group, will relocate to the Palm Beach Gardens office from the company’s headquarters in New York City.
Prior to joining Mission Capital, Strongin headed the commercial lending group for a major real estate investment trust, and worked as a principal in boutique real estate investment and advisory companies. Career activities include commercial real estate lending, joint venture advisory, non-performing loan valuation and portfolio sales, equity syndication, commercial real estate brokerage, real estate development, and direct real estate investing. In addition, Beyer, who is a graduate of the University of Miami, is relocating to a market with which he is extremely familiar.
Prior to joining Mission Capital, Beyer worked for such prominent real estate firms as the Related Companies and a real estate investment bank in New York, where he consummated over $1 billion in equity and debt transactions for real estate companies throughout North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, with a particular focus on hotel assets.
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Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP announced that Victoria Shusterman has joined the firm’s New York office as a partner. Shusterman, formerly with Katten Muchin Rosenman, will continue to focus on real estate finance transactions.
Shusterman focuses her practice on commercial real estate finance. She represents commercial banks, REITs, insurance companies and private equity investors in commercial real estate financing transactions and investments, including balance sheet financings; permanent and bridge loan originations; mezzanine financing and other subordinate financings; construction loans; loan participation, syndications and other co-lender arrangements; and work-outs and restructurings. She has also handled real estate investments across the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean, including multi-state portfolio transactions involving financing of the acquisition of hotel portfolios and multi-family apartment complexes.
Shusterman received her J.D. in 1998 from Washington University School of Law, where she served as Notes Editor of the Washington University Law Review.
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The 42nd Street Development Corporation has appointed Wendy Rowden its new President. She succeeds the organization’s founder, Fred Papert, who has retired after almost 40 years at the helm. Mr. Papert will remain a member of the Board of Directors.
Previously, Ms. Rowden led Jonathan Rose Companies’ Investments, where she was responsible for all aspects of the firm’s investment management business. She was a member of the firm’s Investment and Management Committees. Prior to Jonathan Rose Companies, Ms. Rowden served as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the Rockefeller Group, the U.S. Subsidiary of Mitsubishi Estate Co., one of the largest real estate concerns in the world.
Ms. Rowden is an adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School, where she teaches Real Estate Development. She is the recipient of numerous industry awards, including Bisnow’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Real Estate”, United Way’s “Women United in Philanthropy Award” and Real Estate Weekly’s “Top 100 Women in Real Estate.”
Ms. Rowden is a past president of WX (Women Executives in Real Estate). She is a former member of the Board of Trustees of Maimonides Medical Center and Safe Space NYC (where she served as Board Chair). She is also a former member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Cushman & Wakefield. Ms. Rowden is a member of the Urban Land Institute (Chair-Elect, Women’s Leadership Initiative; member, Urban Development/ Mixed Used Council; Advisory Board member, Building Healthy Places Initiative), Ms. Rowden is a frequent featured speaker on industry panels and at graduate schools. She holds degrees from Brown University, University of Michigan and New York University.
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SRS Real Estate Partners (SRS) is pleased to announce that William Crisp Realty LLC has joined SRS’ New York City team.
This includes the addition of four new team members who will continue to operate out of their Fifth Avenue office location. The team members joining SRS are William Crisp as senior vice president, Alan R. Jones and James M. O’Brien as vice president, and Arielle Singer as senior associate.
William Crisp started his career in real estate working for Foot Locker where he was in charge of expansion for the brand. In 2001, he decided to start his own real estate company, William Crisp Realty, where he has worked in tenant representation for many high profile retailers. He comes to SRS with more than 40 years of extensive real estate knowledge and has successfully negotiated hundreds of transactions throughout his career.
Alan R. Jones joins SRS with more than 45 years of experience in commercial real estate. He has extensive experience working for retailers as an integral part of the real estate department for Payless Shoe Source and Taco Bell Corporation. Alan has also worked with global development teams with retailers such as Arc’Teryx and Salomon Brands where he oversaw American retail development of their brand and outlet stores.
James M. O’Brien has more than 37 years of retail leasing experience. He has a range of experience including tenant representation, property management and leasing, and has an extensive network of retailer, landlord, and developers that he has established relationships with throughout his career. Some of James’ most notable retailer clients include retail expansions for both Neuhaus Chocolate and Samsonite.
Arielle Singer started her career in the real estate industry with William Crisp Realty and joins SRS with three years’ experience. Her responsibilities have included marketing, research, site prospecting, lease review and negotiations. She was first assigned to specifically aid Retail Group of America in their expansion needs and has since worked with other clients such as Smythson, Arc’teryx, Samsonite and New Balance.
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Polsinelli welcomes experienced litigator Adam K. Grant to the firm as shareholder where he will practice nationally from the firm’s New York City office. Grant serves clients in commercial litigation and white collar/government investigations, serves on the New York State Bar Association Committee on Electronic Discovery and is the first commercial litigator to join the New York office of Polsinelli.
In addition to his experience in complex commercial litigation, Grant spent much of the decade representing corporations, charities, partnerships, executives and individuals in complex and high-stakes criminal and regulatory investigations conducted by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Attorney General’s office, various district attorneys’ offices, and FINRA.
Polsinelli’s Litigation Department is quickly growing and nationally known. The firm represents clients in a variety of industries and focuses on these core areas: cyber security; false claims Whistle Blower actions; food litigation; intellectual property litigation; labor and employment; and M & A litigation.
Grant earned his law degree from The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, in 2001, and his BA, cum laude, with highest honors in English Literature, from Vanderbilt University, in 1998.
