'Straight Shooter' Brings Consistency to Deals

NEW YORK CITY-At the Real Estate Board of New York's 118th Annual Banquet next month, the Winter Organization's Robert C. Fink will be the recipient of the Young Real Estate Man of the Year Award, selected by the Young Men's/Women's Real Estate Association of New York. Given that it's bestowed annually on the basis of integrity, professionalism and personal ethics, it's a good fit for Fink.

“I'm a straight shooter and I think I come across as such,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “I believe in treating people the way I would want to be treated. It's something my father instilled in me and I would like to pass along to my children.”

While at Reckson Associates Realty, the REIT that Fink joined in 1999, his boss was Tod Waterman, now of Waterman Associates, who had a way of putting the credo that Fink practices. “He would say, 'Markets change, deal terms change, but you as an individual should always be consistent in terms of how you treat the person on the other side,'” Fink says. “It sounds like common sense, but unfortunately common sense isn't always so common,” although he adds with a laugh that it's a good differentiator for those who have it.

Another business-related principle that Fink absorbed from his father was the old saw, “Water seeks its own level.” In terms of making a career, Fink says, that means “you find the people you're comfortable with and enjoy doing deals with, and those are the people you'll be doing deals with for many years to come.”

Moving into commercial real estate from a stint in the computer software industry, Fink got his start at what was then the Edward S. Gordon Co., which then merged with Insignia and eventually merged with what today is known as CBRE. Although three years as a broker did not turn into a lifelong career path in that discipline, “I realized that I loved commercial real estate,” Fink says. “I realized that the best use of my skill-set would be on the landlord side.” He joined Reckson's newly opened Manhattan office in '99 as a leasing associate, leading the leasing team within three years.

Fink transitioned from the REIT world to the Winter Organization, a century-old family business, in 2008, joining as director of leasing. “It was the type of secure, stable, old-line family-run real estate company that you could settle in with and potentially retire from,” he says. “That's what I was looking for, and I've been there ever since.”