Sharon Locatell, MAI, MRICS, has joined Appraisers and Planners, Inc. as president. Locatell was previously executive director, Brown Harris Stevens Appraisal & Consulting, LLC. She has 25 years experience in real estate valuation and consulting.
Locatell has acted as real estate appraiser and/or consultant to companies that include Rudin Management Company, Cord Meyer, Jack Resnick & Sons, The LeFrak Organization, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Yeshiva University, Lord & Taylor, Wien & Malkin as well as other institutions, corporations and individuals.
Her valuations have also included Rockefeller Center and the MesseTurm in Frankfurt, Germany, one of Europe’s tallest office buildings.
She holds an MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute and MCRICS from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors of which she is a member.
Locatell holds a BA from Gettysburg College and an MA in Real Estate and Urban Analysis Administration from the University of Florida.
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Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP announced that real estate lawyer Steven Klein has joined the firm’s New York office as a partner.
Klein was previously a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
His practice covers a broad range of real estate transactions, including acquisitions and dispositions, joint ventures, financings, leasing, construction and development, restructurings and recapitalizations.
He also has substantial experience in REIT offerings, REIT mergers and formation of investment funds.
His clients include Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, DiamondRock Hospitality Company, AECOM Capital and Lehman Brothers.
He is an adjunct professor at the New York University Schack Institute of Real Estate.
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Oren Neria has joined Eastern Consolidated as an associate director.
He will focus on the purchase and sale of all property types throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Prior to joining Eastern, Neria served as director of investment sales at ERG Property Advisors.
During his three-year period at ERG, he worked on exclusive marketing campaigns for multi-million dollar properties and helped broker real estate transactions in excess of $32 million.
Previously, he served as a business analyst at Hotels Director in Santiago, Chile. He also worked at two hedge funds, Oracle Partners and Kaia Investment Management.
Neria studied history and philosophy at Boston University and completed the Business Certificate Program at Columbia University. He is fluent in Hebrew.
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The Naftali Group announced that Matthew Van Damm has joined the firm as executive vice president.
Van Damm brings more than 12 years of experience to his new position having most recently served as the director of operations at Town Residential, a residential brokerage firm.
Throughout his career in real estate, Van Damm has worked in the pre-development planning, marketing, sales and leasing of properties including 15 William Street with CIM Group, icon at 306 West 48th Street, The Charles developed by Bluerock, The Cocoa Exchange, DKLB BKLN- developed by Forest City Ratner, One Avenue B, the Aldyn and The Ashley developed by Extell Development Company and many more.
He graduated from Mount Saint Mary College with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Minor in Public Relations.
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Massey Knakal Realty Services announced that, after interning with the firm, Matthew Colantonio will be transitioning to an associate role.
He will be working alongside Robert Burton and his team, focusing on Chinatown, Hudson Square, NoLIta, and SoHo.
As an intern to Robert Burton, Colantonio assisted in creating and organizing the team’s comparable sales reports, confidentiality agreements, contracts, marketing materials and territory cataloging.
Earlier, he held positions at Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola, New York and Home Loan Investment Bank in Warick, Rhode Island.
Matthew earned his Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and History from Brown University.
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Transwestern announced that Joseph Polise has joined the firm’s New Jersey office as vice president of construction management.
Polise will work closely with Transwestern’s property management and leasing teams to oversee Transwestern’s construction management assignments throughout the Northeast region.
Polise joins Transwestern from Avison Young, where he most recently served as director of construction for the firm’s New York City office.
Previously, he was also a senior project manager for the Walsh Company in Westchester County, N.Y.
An architect by trade, Polise earned a bachelor’s degree from Montclair State University in environmental science, with a concentration in urban planning.
He also studied architecture at the New York Institute of Technology.
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Massey Knakal Realty Services announced that Jiawei Wu has joined the Capital Services division as a director.
Jiawei’s focus will be on Manhattan’s Chinatown, Hudson Square, NoLIta, and SoHo neighborhoods.
Prior to Massey Knakal, she was a corporate finance intern analyst at Gyanmagnus Associates in London, a financial advisory firm specializing in corporate finance, law and tax.
Earlier,she was a European Power intern analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London, the main research arm at Bloomberg focusing on renewable energy and technologies.
Jiawei also spent time as a capital markets intern analyst at Frontier Investment and as an architect and project manager at Ellenzweig Associates, an architectural firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jiawei earned an MBA in Finance from Oxford University’s Said Business School, a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
She has passed the CFA Levels I and II and is fluent in Mandarin. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by US Project Management Institute, a Registered Architect by the US National Council of Architectural Registration Board, and a LEED Accredited Professional by the US Green Building Council.
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Cushman & Wakefield announced that James Delmonte, a former principal & vice president of research at Avison Young, has rejoined the firm as director of research for New York City.
Delmonte served as an associate and a director as recently as 2006. Now, with seven years experience as a research executive for two competitor firms, he rejoins to co-direct the department with Lori Albert, a 30-year veteran of its research team.
Together they will lead a team of four research professionals in the firm’s Midtown and Downtown offices.
Prior to his role at Avison Young, where he established a research department for their New York City office, Delmonte served as vice president and research director at Jones Lang LaSalle.
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Sabre Real Estate Group is bolstering its New York City brokerage team with the addition of John Gerazounis as an associate.
Gerazounis, who will focus on landlord and tenant representation, previously was a commercial real estate salesperson at Venture Capital Properties. Before that, he worked in mortgage banking.
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Besen Special Assets has hired Daniel Kole as managing director of the residential whole loan desk.
With over 20 years of experience, Kole brings a blend of financial advisory expertise to Besen.
He has worked with some of the largest financial firms including UBS, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, and Santander Investment Services and holds his series 7, 63, 65, life, health and variable insurance licenses and is also a Certified Retirement Counselor.
Kole will be managing the residential (1-4 family) whole loan desk where he will be responsible for overseeing day to day operations, which include working exclusively on behalf of community, regional and national banks as well as private equity funds and hedge funds in the disposition of residential (1-4 family) whole loans to private, corporate and institutional investors.
He completed the Certified Financial Planner Program at Fairleigh Dickenson University.
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Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Douglas Elliman’s Retail Group, has been appointed to the 2014 Board of Directors of the Commercial Real Estate Women’s (CREW) Network. Her term will begin January 1, 2014.
The appointment required unanimous votes cast by the current board of directors, who recognized Consolo’s contributions to various industry, educational and charitable organizations.
Consolo is a past president of the Association of Real Estate Women (AREW).
This year she initiated NYCrew’s Empire Award to honor a deserving member who has shown commitment and achievement.
Consolo is also a co-founder of the SBS Group of Worldwide Fashion Brokers, and the founding and current chairman of the Women’s Special Industry Group for the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
For the Douglas Elliman Retail Group, Consolo leads a team of 25 specialists in New York and the commercial activities of the firm’s 80 offices, serving an international base of retailers, designers, manufacturers, investors, entrepreneurs, and developers.
