NEW YORK CITY—In a city of tall buildings and mega-deals, it falls to a handful of people to maintain the stature that enables them to stand out amid the landscape. The leaders in the New York City area commercial real estate sector include owners, developers and advocates, with some combining all three of these roles. Many of them are also heavily involved in civic and philanthropic causes at the city, national and international levels. Here, Real Estate Forum puts the spotlight on 21 individuals who have helped shape and influence CRE in the New York City region. 

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NICHOLAS BIENSTOCK

Since joining Savanna in 1999, Bienstock has worked on the acquisition, financing, redevelopment, restructuring and sale of more than $5 billion of real estate throughout the US as co-managing partner. He sits on Savanna's investment committee and supervises the ongoing marketing and leasing of the company's investments. Bienstock has developed relationships with institutional lenders, third-party capital partners and fund investors as well as identified acquisitions and structured transactions during his 15 years with Savanna. Before joining Savanna, Bienstock worked at Capital Trust Inc. and before that at Chemical Bank. He has served as an assistant adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he taught case studies in real estate finance to graduate students in the Columbia Architecture School's Real Estate Master's Degree Program and at the Columbia Business School. Bienstock also serves on the advisory board of the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate at Columbia Business School.

MARTIN S. BURGER

Succeeding company founder and chairman Larry Silverstein as CEO of Silverstein Properties Inc., Burger is in charge of the day-to-day operations of the company. He also will continue to lead SPI's efforts to develop new projects in the United States, China, Eastern Europe and Israel. Before joining SPI, Burger was president and CEO of Artisan Real Estate Ventures, a company he founded in 2006. As head of Artisan, he oversaw the acquisition and management of about 2,000 residential rental units around Las Vegas. Burger spent 15 years at Related, including serving as president of Related Las Vegas and executive vice president of the Related Cos. LP. He was also a principal and chief investment officer for Related Urban Development, where he oversaw the structuring and financing for all of its projects involving more than $4 billion in public and private debt and joint venture equity transactions; Related Lodging Group; and Related Experiences.

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CHARLES S. COHEN

As owner, president and CEO of Cohen Brothers Realty Corp., Cohen is one of the rare breed of developers with a vision that is clearly and ultimately defined by design. He has brought that vision to bear on a portfolio of more than 12 million square feet of prime properties in New York, Texas, Florida and Southern California, including both ground-up development and repositioning. Cohen has carved out a special niche thanks to his ability to reposition and maximize the potential of underutilized buildings, such as the vacant 39-story, million-square-foot former Empire Blue Cross/Blue Shield office building in Manhattan, which he turned into a fully leased class A office tower housing the world headquarters of McCann Erickson, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and HypoVereinsbank. More recently, he has repositioned and redeveloped 623 Fifth Ave., formerly known as Swiss Bank Tower, into a multi-tenanted corporate center for financial firms and service providers, including Merrill Lynch, UBS Securities and Cargill.

MEIR COHEN

Born and raised in Israel, where he served for seven years in the military and attained the rank of captain, Cohen emigrated to the US in 1984. Settling in New York City, he quickly took interest in the city's complex and richly varied neighborhood real estate markets. Within months of his arrival, Cohen began acquiring and operating commercial property. Over the next five years, he bought and sold 40 buildings, mostly in Manhattan, including the largest parking garage in New York City, the 1.2-million-square-foot Pier 40 on the Hudson riverfront. In 1989, Cohen teamed up with Ben Korman to form the partnership that became C&K Properties LLC, and later individually formed Cohen Equities. In addition to Pier 40, their prominent projects include EAB Plaza, the largest office complex on Long Island; 1710 Broadway; and 132 W. 32nd St., a 418,000-square-foot office building in the Penn Station district.

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H. HENRY ELGHANAYAN

H. Henry Elghanayan is the co-founder and CEO of Rockrose Development Corp. Since its founding in 1969, the company has developed, acquired or repositioned approximately 60 projects encompassing 11,000 residential units, 3.3 million square feet of office and one million square feet of retail space, totaling 14 million square feet and valued at over $6 billion. Rockrose is perhaps best known for developing the Archive residential building at 666 Greenwich St. in Greenwich Village, as well as the 60-story, Cesar Pelli-designed Carnegie Hall Tower and other commercial properties in both New York City and Washington, DC. The company currently manages approximately 3,500 units in its residential-rental portfolio and is in the process of constructing an additional 2,500 units in Long Island City, Queens. Elghanayan, who emigrated from Tehran as a child and grew up in Queens, began his career as a practicing lawyer, primarily in the real estate field.

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K. THOMAS ELGHANAYAN

TF Cornerstone's co-founders, chairman K. Thomas Elghanayan and president Frederick Elghanayan, oversee a commercial and residential real estate portfolio of more than 10 million square feet, with an additional two million square feet in development, throughout New York City and Washington, DC. K. Thomas Elghanayan is actively involved in supervising acquisitions, finance, planning, sales, residential marketing and management. During a commercial real estate carere that has spanned more than four decades, he has earned a reputation as a forward-thinker who has set a standard for building style and quality, while paving the way into New York's burgeoning neighborhoods. He's also an avid member of the real estate community, serving on REBNY's board of governors, the executive committee for the Alliance for Downtown New York, the Yale Club of New York, the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association and the Carnegie Hall Society.

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ZIEL FELDMAN

Feldman is the founder and managing principal of HFZ Capital Group, a Manhattan-based real estate investment and development company formed in 2005. It was the second company launched on Feldman's watch; he co-founded Property Markets Group in 1991 and it grew into a national real estate development company under his leadership. HFZ capitalizes on development and investment opportunities both in the US and abroad and has acquired, owned, developed and operated properties across many asset classes. Among its recent projects are the acquisition, development and construction of mixed-use residential condominiums located at One Madison in the Flatiron District; the Chatsworth and the Astor, both on the Upper West Side; and the note securing the Setai at Wall Street in the Financial District. HFZ has also developed several projects in Florida, while locally it has emerged as perhaps the most prolific developer of luxury, residential condos in Manhattan.

KENNETH FISHER

Fisher is responsible for managing, marketing and leasing a portfolio of more than six million square feet of Fisher Brothers-owned class A real estate in Midtown. In addition to his responsibilities at Fisher Brothers, he is a member of the executive committee of the REBNY Board of Governors and the Washington, DC-based Real Estate Round Table. He is also an active philanthropist whose dedication to improving the lives of active-duty service members, veterans and their families has been widely recognized at the highest levels. His primary work is as chairman of the Fisher House Foundation, which builds comfort homes near military hospitals and VA medical centers across the country and in Germany. In 2009, the Association of the United States Army gave Fisher its highest honor, the George C. Marshall Award. Additionally, he sits on the boards of the Intrepid Museum, New York's Finest Foundation, AHRC New York City, the Jackie Robinson Foundation and the Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, KS.

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MARYANNE GILMARTIN

Hand-picked by Forest City Ratner Cos.' Bruce Ratner to succeed him as president and CEO in 2013, Gilmartin has been point person in the development of some of the most high-profile real estate projects in New York City. She led the efforts to build Barclays Center, the sports and entertainment venue that's the centerpiece of Pacific Park Brooklyn, the 22-acre mixed-use development formerly known as Atlantic Yards. Gilmartin oversaw the development of the New York Times Building and New York by Gehry, the tallest residential building in the Western Hemisphere. In addition to these projects, Gilmartin has managed the 6.7-million-square-foot commercial portfolio at MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn. Recently, Gilmartin, who was spotlighted by REAL ESTATE FORUM as one of its Women of Influence “Legends” in the July/August issue, was named co-chair of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and to the board of directors of the Jefferies Group LLC, a global investment banking firm.

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DAVID W. LEVINSON

Levinson serves as chairman and CEO of L&L Holding Co. LLC, the investment and development company he co-founded with Robert T. Lapidus in June 2000. Since inception, L&L has acquired more than six million square feet of commercial office space, including 114 Fifth Ave., 142 W. 57th St., 150 Fifth Ave., 195 Broadway, 222 Broadway, 200 Fifth Ave., 425 Park Ave. and 600 Third Ave. L&L's repositioning projects have not only attracted blue-chip tenants, but have also won numerous industry awards. On 200 Fifth alone, L&L received two Merit Awards from AIA New York, two from BOMA Intertnational, an Honor Award for Commercial and Institutional Design from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and the first-ever LEED Gold certification for a landmarked Core & Shell from the US Green Building Council. Levinson serves on the the executive committee of REBNY's Board of Governors and the board of diurectors of the Municipal Arts Society.

HARRY MACKLOWE

Harry Macklowe started in real estate in 1960, initially as a commercial leasing broker and then as a property developer and builder. He founded Macklowe Properties in the mid-1960s; the company he has chaired since then combines design, planning, construction, management and accounting with executive-level ownership and operation. While real estate cycles have come and gone since the company was founded, its mission remains, unchanged: to secure or create highly profitable real estate investments in apartment housing and office buildings in prime locations in and around Midtown Manhattan. Macklowe's contributions to Manhattan's streetscape range from the Metropolitan Tower on West 57th Street to the redevelopment of 340 Madison Ave. to the iconic Apple glass cube in front of the GM Building. He is presently redeveloping two prewar luxury apartment buildings on Manhattan's Upper East Side and has begun construction of a mixed-use tower at 432 Park Ave.

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ANDREW MATHIAS

Mathias serves as president of SL Green Realty Corp, New York City's largest commercial office landlord and one of the nation's leading REITs. He was named to its board of directors this past June. Since joining SL Green as a vice president in 1999, Mathias has been a driving force behind the REIT's remarkable growth in the office sector, spearheading its $6-billion acquisition of Reckson Associates Realty in 2006, and its emergence as a major investor in Manhattan retail properties and as a market leader in debt and preferred equity financing. Today, the company's total portfolio includes interests in more than 130 assets in New York City's tri-state region, totaling approximately 52 million square feet. Prior to joining SL Green, Mathias worked at Capital Trust and its predecessor, Victor Capital Group, where he was involved in a wide variety of real estate principal investments and advisory transactions.

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MICHAEL MATURO

Maturo is a founding managing partner and serves as president of RXR Realty LLC, a multi-billion dollar private real estate company which was formed subsequent to the 2006 sale of Reckson Associates Realty Corp. to SL Green in one of the largest public real estate management buyouts in REIT history. In this capacity at RXR, he develops, implements and oversees the company's corporate strategy and investment fund and asset management businesses. Maturo also serves as RXR's chief financial officer and is a member of RXR's investment committee and its board of directors. He is also a principal and member of the investment committee of RXR Real Estate Opportunity Fund, LLC and RXR Real Estate Value Add Fund LLC. During his 12-year tenure at Reckson, where he served as president and CFO, Maturo completed more than $20 billion in capital markets transactions.

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STEPHEN J. MERINGOFF

Meringoff is a managing partner of Himmel + Meringoff Properties Inc., and chairman of its affiliated property management company, Meringoff Properties Inc. He has played an active ownership role in the city's real estate community for more than 33 years, and currently owns and operates a portfolio of commercial property valued at more than $1 billion. Since 1979, he has acquired more than 45 commercial properties comprising approximately four million square feet in New York City and Los Angeles. His real estate specialty has been the acquisition and operation of existing undervalued properties and the subsequent upgrading and creation of value in these properties. His philanthropic activity is focused primarily in support of public education and he currently serves on a number of boards in the area including the Alvin Ailey Dance Company and the Leadership Council of the New York Stem Cell Foundation.

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LEE NEIBART

Neibart served as global CEO for AREA Property Partners, formerly known as Apollo Real Estate Advisors, from 1993 until its 2013 acquisition by Ares Management. At Ares, he's a senior partner in the real estate group and chairman of global real estate, focused on fundraising and US opportunistic investing. He additionally serves on Ares' management committee and on its real estate operating committee, and is a member of the Ares Real Estate Group's US equity, Europe equity and real estate debt investment committees. From 1989 to 1993, Neibart was with the Robert Martin Co., a real estate development and management firm, most recently serving as executive vice president and COO. Neibart also serves on the advisory board of the Real Estate Institute of New York University. He is also a past president of the New York chapter of NAIOP.

PAUL E. PARISER

Pariser serves as co-CEO of Taconic Investment Partners, which has developed, redeveloped and repositioned more than 12 million square feet of office, mixed-use and retail space and more than 3,000 units of for-sale and rental housing in New York City. Taconic is currently developing 837 Washington St., a 55,000-square-foot office and retail building in the Meatpacking District; and the Sterling Mason, a boutique luxury condominium in Tribeca. In September of 2013, Taconic announced a joint venture with L +M Development Partners and BFC Partners to develop Essex Crossing, a 1.8-million-square-foot mixed-use project to be built on mostly vacant city-owned land on the Lower East Side. Prior to founding Taconic with Charlie Bendit in 1997, Pariser was president and CEO of Balfour Holdings, which acquired assets through the Resolution Trust Corp. and focused on the acquisition and redevelopment of master planned communities. Ultimately, he directed the sale of Balfour Holdings to the Blackstone Group.

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ABY ROSEN

Co-founder and principal of RFR Realty, Rosen has helped build one of the most active and successful New York City-based real estate firms. Since its founding in 1991, RFR has amassed a substantial and diverse property portfolio that includes the Seagram Building at 375 Park Ave., Lever House at 390 Park Ave. and 285 Madison Ave., which is in the process of being completely repositioned as a high-end, modern office building. Rosen continues to be actively involved in all aspects of RFR's operations, ranging from leasing and management to acquisitions, dispositions and re-financings. A dedicated philanthropist and preservationist, Rosen was confirmed by the New York State Senate in 2011 as chair of the New York State Council on the Arts, whose mission is to preserve and expand “the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York's citizens.”

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GLENN RUFRANO

Chairman and CEO of O'Connor Capital Partners, Rufrano last November rejoined O'Connor—where he was a founding partner of its predecessor, O'Connnor Group, in 1983—from his prior role as president and CEO of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Between January 2008 and February 2010, he was CEO of Australia-based Centro Properties Group, which owned 22 million square feet of retail property in Australia and 100 million square feet in the US. He had served as CEO of Centro Properties Group US , and before that as CEO of New Plan Excel Realty Trust, a REIT which under his leadership became one of the nation's largest public real estate companies before its 2007 sale to Centro. Mr. Rufrano joined New Plan Excel in February 2000, following 17 years as a partner at the O'Connor Group, where he served as president and COO, overseeing the investment and management of three private equity funds.

JOSEPH SIMONE

Simone has achieved major success in two industries—automotive and commercial real estate. In 1976, he started Hunts Point Auto Parts, together with his father, Pat Simone, and launched a revolution in the automobile salvage industry: the pre-disassembly of cars; a computer-based shelving and stacking inventory system; and a multi-state delivery program. At the same time, be began to expand into CRE with a portfolio of Bronx and lower-Westchester industrial buildings. Today, Simone Development owns more than 100 commercial properties totaling more than five million square feet within a 75-mile radius of New York City. They range from standalone class A office and medical buildings to office parks and retail centers. Simone Development Group's assemblage of 42-acres in the Bronx, now known as Hutchinson Metro Center, has been widely cited as a bellwether achievement in the revival of the Bronx.

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ROB SPEYER

Rob Speyer has served as president and co-CEO of Tishman Speyer since 2008. He is also the youngest man ever named chairman of the 13,000-member Real Estate Board of New York, assuming the chairmanship of the 119-year-old trade association in 2012 at age 43. In 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio reappointed Speyer as chairman of the advisory board of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City, the city's nonprofit arm, which Speyer has chaired since his original appointment by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006. He is also co-chairman of the construction committee of the St. Patrick's Cathedral Landmark Foundation, which oversees the renovation of the country's most renowned cathedral. Speyer's civic involvement doesn't end there: he sits on the boards of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the Fudan University School of Management in Shanghai, the Real Estate Roundtable and the Citizens Budget Commission, among other organizations.

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STEVEN SPINOLA

Spinola has the distinction of being the longest-serving president of the Real Estate Board of New York, having held the position since 1986. He is regarded by many in both New York City and Albany as the real estate sector's most influential and well-informed advocate. He has been an outspoken supporter of public policies that have helped maintain New York City's status as a competitive and business-friendly locale that consistently attracts global investment. In 2010, Spinola's advocacy helped persuade the federal government to move the 9/11 terrorist trials to a location outside of Lower Manhattan. He was also instrumental in winning incentives that helped stimulate widespread residential development and commercial investment in Lower Manhattan both before and after 9/11. Spinola is an outspoken proponent for the Midtown East rezoning in Manhattan, and in the past he played a key leadership role as an advocate for rezonings of Manhattan's Hudson Yards and Downtown Brooklyn.

JEFF SUTTON

Founder and president of Wharton Properties, Sutton has amassed more than 120 properties in prime locations throughout New York City over the past two decades. Among his most notable acquisitions include 717 Fifth Ave., 724 Fifth Ave., 650 Fifth Avenue, 609 Fifth Ave., 747 Madison Ave., the American Eagle at 1551 Broadway, the new Express store at 1552 Broadway, the development site at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue and the newly built development at 180 Broadway. Among his primary assets is his strong relationship with high quality retail tenants, which he has placed in almost all of his properties. Sutton's persistence in securing American Girl Place as the retail tenant at 609 Fifth led to winning the Real Estate Board of New York's award for “Most Ingenious Retail Deal of the Year” in June 2003.