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Deals & Dealmakers

WHO’S NEWS: Handler expands brokerage team

ALEX BUSH
ALEX FURST

Handler Real Estate Organization has expanded its brokerage team with the hiring of Alex Furst and Alex Bush.
Furst and Bush will be responsible for leasing Handler’s owned properties, as well as arranging leases on behalf of tenants and landlords at various properties throughout New York City.
They will also look to identify potential investment opportunities as Handler continues to expand its diverse portfolio.
Handler, through its investment vehicle, ESSH Investments LLC, owns and invests in more than 100 commercial and residential properties throughout the United States.
With more than 15 years of professional experience, Alex Furst most recently served as a director with Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
Throughout his career he has closed hundreds of transactions, with an aggregate value of approximately $1 billion.
He is an alumnus of the University of Miami.
Since starting in the industry four years ago Alex Bush has closed more than 100 transactions.
Previously with Redwood Realty, he represents a wide range of tenants with a strong focus on growing tech firms; including a recent 15,000 s/f lease for fintech startup Octane Lending.
Alex is an alumnus of Arizona State University and has a background in architecture and construction management.

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Development Counsellors International (DCI) has hired Beth Miller as vice president of media relations.
Miller will serve as the lead earned media strategist, media training expert and crisis communications professional for the company’s Economic Development practice.
A communications veteran with more than 17 years of experience, Miller joins DCI from Skanska, where she was vice president and head of communications.
As a former press secretary for the City of New York under the Bloomberg Administration, she has experience in government relations and public awareness campaigns.
Miller graduated from the University of Tennessee with a B.S. in communications, majoring in public relations.

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Tri State Commercial Realty announced the appointment of Casey Mullin as an associate broker.
Mullin has over 15 years of experience in the real estate industry with a keen focus on the Brooklyn market.
Mullin joins Tri State from Nooklyn, a Brooklyn-based start-up that connects renters with apartments.
Prior to joining the brokerage world, Mullin spent five years as a property manager for Vintage Real Estate Services. She also served as the director of operations for Shore Front Developers of Rockaway Park, a luxury condominium developer in Queens.

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Enterprise Community Partners has welcomed Donald H. Layton, the former CEO of Freddie Mac, to its board of trustees
An industry veteran with more than 40 years of experience in banking, financial services and housing finance, Layton retired from Freddie Mac in June after serving as CEO for seven years, a position he took as a public service.
He spent most of his career at JPMorgan Chase and its predecessors, rising through the ranks from a trainee to eventually become vice chairman responsible for managing about half of the company before retiring in 2004.
Layton served as chairman and then CEO of E*TRADE Financial from 2007-2009 before joining Freddie Mac in 2012.
In addition to Enterprise, he sits on the boards of the nonprofits International Executive Service Corps and Children’s Health Fund, and serves as chairman emeritus of New York City’s Partnership for the Homeless after having served as its board chairman for a decade.
Layton holds both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology a well as a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
In 2019, he was named an industry fellow at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, where he will focus on writing about a wide variety of housing finance issues.
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B6 Real Estate Advisors (B6) announced the appointment of Eli Hattem as partner and senior managing director in B6’s Capital Advisory Division.
Hattem has over 30 years of commercial real estate finance expertise and brings over $30 billion in transactional volume and experience to the B6 team.
He has previously held senior positions at CIBC Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch Mortgage Lending.
He has also held roles at various other major financial institutions including Chase Manhattan Bank, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Since 2009, Hattem founded two firms, Park Bridge Financial and Derby Real Estate Capital, both of which provide capital advisory services.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University and an M.B.A from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
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Colliers Project Leaders | USA announced the promotion of industry veteran Joe Bolano to Managing Director of the firm’s New York City practice.
Bolano will assume a pivotal leadership position focused on continuing to grow the Project Leaders USA footprint in the New York City metro area.
Bolano was previously regional director of Healthcare and Life Sciences, overseeing the growth of Colliers Project Leader’s healthcare sector in New England, the New York City metro area and the Mid-Atlantic.
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Lee & Associates NYC LLC has welcomed Jon Zuckerman to its executive team as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Lee NYC, Zuckerman was an executive managing director at Colliers International. Most recently, he has focused on tenant representation although he boasts an eclectic background that includes extensive property owner representation as well.
Over the course of his career, Zuckerman has completed numerous high-profile transactions including the 300,000 s/f deal for Avon at 777 Third Avenue and more than two million square feet representing MetLife at 200 Park Avenue, among others.
Some of his property owner clients include Shorenstein Properties, New York Life, Compass Management and MetLife.
Zuckerman was previously an executive managing director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank and before that, he was an attorney.
He is a frequent lecturer at Columbia University’s Graduate Business School and teaches a class on lease negotiations for The New York State Bar Association.
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Ferguson Partners announced Linda J. Isaacson as the firm’s Managing Director and Global Head of Innovation and Technology.
Isaacson, a veteran in the real estate and PropTech industries, will look to empower clients to create innovative cultures that embrace digitization and creativity through Big Data, PropTech, FinTech, ConTech and AI, among other emerging technologies and venture capital opportunities.
Leading Ferguson Partners’ recruitment of next generation, tech-savvy leaders, she will identify and place board and C-suite .
Before joining FPL, Isaacson served as the Senior Vice President and Director of Business Intelligence and Data & Analytics for First American Title. Additionally, she serves as a Board Member for CRETech, an organization composed of thought leaders in the commercial real estate tech sector .
She holds a Master of Education from Boston University, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Miami and a certificate from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School Aresty Institute of Executive Education in “Advanced Analytics: From Data to Insights.”

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Jaros, Baum & Bolles (JB&B) announced that Melissa Goren, PE, LC, LEED AP BD+C, IALD, IES, Studio Manager for the firm’s LightBox Studios team, has been appointed to the New York Section of the Illuminating Engineering Society Board of Managers.
Goren was selected for her industry-leading designs, mentorship of young professionals and valued contributions to the IESNYC.
In addition to holding a position of leadership on the Board, Goren will be a voice for designers on the Board. She will help grow IESNYC’s presence through her high level of involvement in committee actions and decisions.
Goren is a licensed Professional Engineer, a Lighting Certified professional by the National Council of Qualifications for the Lighting Professions, a LEED BD+C Accredited Professional, Professional Member of the IALD and Member of the IES.

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