The Dealmakers’ Edge with A.Y. Strauss

Managing partner Aaron Strauss sits down with Seth Weissman, founder and managing partner of Urban Standard Capital (“USC”). The Goldman Sachs and Perry Capital alum takes listeners through his career journey, lessons learned, and the steps he took to build USC into a fully integrated real estate private equity firm managing over $600 million in real estate equity and debt investments. 

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On this episode, managing partner Aaron Strauss sits down with Michael Seeve to discuss his career, favorite deals, the current market, and his advice for those new to the real estate industry. 

Michael serves as President of Mountain Development Corporation (MDC) and guides the firm’s activities in close coordination with its executive team, professionals, and partners. Michael provides strategic leadership for the firm and works actively on many of the firm’s projects.

Michael is a past President of the New Jersey Chapter of NAIOP, the State’s leading advocacy association for the commercial real estate development industry. The organization, which currently has more than 700 members just in New Jersey, focuses on public land use issues, professional advancement, and industry best practices.

Michael serves as Chairman of the Board of William Paterson University, one of the State’s public higher education institutions and is a past Chairman of the University’s Foundation. Michael serves on the State of New Jersey Uniform Construction Code Advisory Board. He is also a past Chairman of the Paterson Special Improvement District, a public private partnership active in the central business district of the State’s third largest City. 

Michael is a past Chairman of the former Barnert Hospital Foundation. He has been recognized as Distinguished Friend in 2015 at William Paterson University’s annual gala, as Barnert Hospital’s “Man of the Year” at their 2006 gala, and included in the “Forty under 40” lists by NJ BIZ and Real Estate New Jersey magazine. 

Michael is a 1992 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife Veronica and their two sons.

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On this episode, managing partner Aaron Strauss sits down with Ezra Stark, CEO of Stark Enterprises. Founded in 1978 by Robert Stark, Stark Enterprises is a full-service commercial real estate development firm focused on Mixed-Use, Retail, Office, Student Housing, and Parking Facilities located across 7 States. 

As CEO, Ezra has grown Stark’s footprint to include over 9 Million square feet of Class A commercial properties that’s currently valued at over $2 billion. Before being tapped in May 2022 for the CEO role, Ezra held several leadership roles at Stark, including SVP of property management and later as COO. 

As a critical voice in the commercial real estate industry, Ezra regularly speaks on panels across the country, and shares perspectives on the market, investment, and what's coming in his "From the desk of the CEO" online article series.

Ezra is a member and partner of the International Council of Shopping Centers (“ICSC”). He’s been recognized as one of Crain’s Cleveland Businesses’ “40 under 40” for his accomplishments in the real estate industry. He graduated from Brandeis University, and New York University's storied MBA program.

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Gary Lipsky has been a real estate entrepreneur for over 20 years. He is the founder of an award-winning multifamily syndication business and has acquired over 3,000 apartment units valued at over $250MM.

Gary is the host of the Real Estate Investor Podcast (available on Apple podcasts), where he interviews industry experts to provide a broad range education to investors. He is also the best-selling author of “Best in Class: How to Manage Your Multifamily Asset, Avoid Mistakes, and Build Wealth through Real Estate” (available on Amazon), founder of the Asset Management Summit, and a frequent guest speaker at investment conferences across the country.

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Enjoy the show? Have a guest in mind? Email us at Podcast@aystrauss.com to let us know your feedback and who you want to hear on the next episode.

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On this episode, managing partner Aaron Y. Strauss is joined by Michael Maturo, founding Managing Partner and President at RXR Realty (“RXR”), a multi-billion-dollar private real estate company, headquartered in New York. The RXR platform manages 84 commercial real estate properties and investments with an aggregate gross asset value of $21 billion. Prior to becoming President of RXR, Mr. Maturo served as President and Board member at Reckson Associates Realty Corporation (“Reckson”). To date, Michael has been involved in capital markets transactions that have totaled over $37 billion.  

Mr. Maturo also serves on several outside Boards and Committees, serving as First Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Long Island Association, as well as a Member of its Executive Committee and Chairman of its Exonomic Development Committee. In December of 2012, Mr. Maturo was appointed by Governor Cuomo to the Board of Trustees of the Long Island Power Authority where he served as a Chairman of the Personnel and Compensation Committee until January 2014. 

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In this episode, managing partner Aaron Strauss sits down with  Mark Cover, CEO for the Southwest region at Hines. Founded in 1957 by Gerald D. Hines, Hines is a privately-owned global real estate investment firm with over $95 billion in assets under management and more than 96 million square feet of assets for which it provides property-level services.

As CEO for the Southwest region, Mark is responsible for key investment partner relationships and oversees all development, acquisition and operational activities in the Southwest, Mexico and Central America. Mark is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. He’s a graduate of Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC) and a retired CPA. 

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James Nelson serves as Principal and Head of Avison Young’s Tri-State Investment Sales group based in New York City. Throughout his illustrious 25-year career, James has facilitated the sale of over 500 properties and loans, amassing an impressive total valuation exceeding $5 billion. Since the inception of James' sales team in 2018, their impressive performance has culminated in closing over 150 sales valued over $2.5 billion. 

Beyond his brokerage success, James is also an experienced investor, having launched two real estate funds with an impressive aggregate capitalization surpassing $350 million. 

He is an active contributor to the commercial real estate community and regularly imparts valuable industry lessons on his podcast, “The Insider’s Edge to Real Estate Investing” (available on Apple podcasts). His recent book, The Insider’s Edge to Real Estate Investing (available on his website and on Amazon) is a Wall Street Journal bestseller. James also guest lectures on real estate at prominent institutions such as Columbia, Fordham, NYU, Wharton, and his alma mater, Colgate. 

James has been recognized as one of Avison Young’s top sales professionals, included in Commercial Observer’s Power 100 and CoStar Power Broker, and awarded the Edward S. Gordan Deal of the Year award presented by REBNY. James has worked with notable clients such as The Archdiocese of New York, Breaking Ground, The Carlyle Group, JP Morgan Chase, Salvation Army, and Vornado, among others.

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Ellie Perlman is the founder of Blue Lake Capital Group, a private investment and management firm focused on multifamily real estate in the United States. Ellie draws from over fifteen years of experience across real estate investment, law, and property management. At current, Blue Lake Capital owns and manages over 3,300 multifamily units across the U.S. Ellie’s professional journey has been featured in Forbes, Yahoo! Finance, and Globe Street, among others. She is a frequent guest contributor to industry publications on the topic of real estate investment. 

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Chris Okada is the CEO of Okada & Company, a privately-held, full-service commercial real estate brokerage and investment company based in New York City. To date, the Okada & Company has completed more than $1.5 billion of commercial sales and leasing transactions. 

Chris is also the founder of The Okada Acquisition Company, which focuses on acquiring prime office, retail, and multi-family properties in the Midtown and Midtown South submarkets of Manhattan. 

His insights have been featured in publications like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Crain's New York, and many others. And he’s also the author of “From Fear to Fortune”, a special industry report on the decline and resulting opportunities in post-pandemic Manhattan real estate.

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John Usdan, CEO of Midwood Investment & Development. Founded in 1925 as a residential brokerage, Midwood is a vertically integrated investment, development and management platform focused on best-in-class mixed-use commercial and residential properties. John has spent the past 42 years helping Midwood amass a portfolio that includes over 130 properties across the U.S., and several million square feet in its development pipeline. 

John's leadership reflects Midwood’s mission statement, which is: “[t]o restore and revitalize the fabric of our urban centers, and to improve the way people live, work and play through industry-leading design, planning and execution.”

In addition to Midwood, John is actively involved in several industry, non-profit and philanthropic initiatives. His current affiliations include: 

• Trustee, The Brooklyn Academy of Music 
• Chair, BAM's Strategic Planning Committee 
• Board President, The Usdan Center 
• Board Member, UJA Federation 
• Board Member, The Hastings Center Board of Directors
• Chair, Hastings Capital Campaign
• Board Member, Corporate Board of Merchants National Properties

John is Trustee Emeritus for Wesleyan University and a previous Trustee for Brandeis University. 

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In our newest podcast episode, Aaron Strauss sits down with Matthew Weinstein, Partner & Head of Credit at Axonic Capital. Drawing from a background in CRE credit strategies, Matthew guides Axonic’s asset allocation, sector allocation, trading and investment management of over $4.5 billion AUM.

Alongside the firm’s CIO/Managing Partner Clayton DeGiacinto, Matthew oversees Axonic’s asset allocation, sector allocation, trading and investment management. Matthew is responsible for the firm’s build-out of its commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”) and commercial real estate equity and debt businesses. He also serves as Head of the Real Estate Investment Committee. 

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Dan Kodsi is the CEO of Royal Palm Companies (RPC), a role he’s held since 1991. RPC is a leading Florida-based real estate and development firm that, under Dan’s leadership, has delivered over 6,000 units across mixed-use developments, multi-family, residences, and hospitality assets totaling over $3.5 billion in managed and completed projects to date. In 2011, Dan founded Participant Capital as the capital arm of RPC and a vehicle to empower individual investors to participate in ground-up construction projects.

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Salman Khan is the founder and managing principal of Stabilis Capital Management, a privately held investment firm focused on senior-secured, short-duration bridge loans collateralized by commercial real estate and commercial & industrial assets across the U.S. He founded the firm in 2010 and has raised over $1.7 billion since its inception. Stabilis is currently deploying its fifth fund.

A graduate of Columbia University and the Wharton School of Business, Salman has a track record that includes building out cutting-edge business units at Goldman Sachs, managing a $600 million discretionary portfolio at Silverpoint Capital, and collectively managing more than $6 billion over the course of his career. 

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Step into the mind of a legendary real estate developer - our latest podcast guest, Ian Bruce Eichner, who’s development accomplishments include over 14 million square feet across New York City skyscrapers, Miami Beach condo towers, and The Cosmopolitan resort and casino in Las Vegas. Founder of Continuum Company, Eichner has been a force in the national real estate development industry for over three decades as well as the subject matter for one of the best books ever written on real estate development, “High Rise” by Jerry Adler (available on Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/HighRiseAYS). 

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In this episode, Aaron Strauss sits down with Carlos Rodriguez, Sr., the founder, chairman, and CEO of Driftwood Capital. Carlos breaks down the highs, lows, and milestones behind building a vertically integrated hospitality and lending platform. Carlos and his team manage Driftwood Capital’s $3 billion portfolio which includes 15,000 keys across 80 hotels.

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Cory Elbaum is a Managing Director on the U.S. Real Estate team at Angelo Gordon. Angelo Gordon is a leading, privately-held alternative investment firm, currently managing approximately $52 billion across a broad range of credit and real estate strategies. Cory oversees the firm’s real estate activities in the New York Tri-State area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut). Prior to joining the firm in 2020, Cory worked at Dune Real Estate Partners where he focused on distressed and value-add real estate in the U.S. His previous experience includes work at Thor Equities, where he managed the North American acquisitions group. Cory is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

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Andrew Stewart, CEO of Cronheim Mortgage, takes a deep dive into the most surprising trends in commercial real estate debt financing. 

In this latest installment of The Dealmakers Edge, Stewart sits down with host Aaron Strauss to provide an insider’s view of the hottest asset classes to watch for in 2023; managing the unrelenting pressure of making deals; and his keys to success in business and in life.

Courtesy of Cronheim Mortgage:

Andrew Stewart began his real estate career at age 19 renting apartments to help pay for college in Boston, Massachusetts. As someone who has learned the business from humble beginnings, he has gained a wealth of experience at all levels of a real estate organization. He has used this knowledge to consistently rank among America’s most productive mortgage bankers and has evolved into an owner/sponsor partnering with real estate developers in numerous projects nationwide. His investment track record has generated excellent returns due to his creative problem solving, focus on market dislocations, and the ability to evaluate a project from various viewpoints as a mortgage banker/broker, property owner, and a CMBS B piece investor.

In June 2020, ICSC tapped Andrew to assist in the ongoing Congressional negotiations to provide additional capital for COVID impacted impaired real estate owners. His most recent article, ‘A Match Not Made in Heaven, Securitization and the Commercial Mortgage Industry’ was the September 2020 feature in Institutional Real Estate Investor and was submitted by ICSC to the Federal Reserve and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to illustrate the problems inherent in CMBS loan modifications.

A September 2006 article “Managing Expectations” correctly forecast the subprime and mortgage bond issues that impacted the market a year later.

Prior to working at Cronheim, he worked from 1987-94 at Donald Zucker Company, one of NYC’s top multifamily developers, and at Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette, later acquired by Credit Suisse, from 1984 to 1986.

He is a member of the ICSC, MBA/YMBA, IOREBA, NMHC, REBNY and NAIOP.

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In this episode of The Dealmakers Edge, managing partner Aaron Strauss persuades Scott Sherman of Torose Equities to reveal his secrets about how to zig when others zag in commercial real estate, why the office space market will come back in certain markets in 2023,  and how that will turbocharge the careers of the next generation.


Scott Sherman is the founder of Torose Equities, which he launched earlier this year [2022]. He started his first real estate investment firm in 2016, Tricera Capital of Miami, where he led the team in building a $700M portfolio in a 5-year span. Always seeking a new challenge, in 2022 he founded Torose Equities, where he handles the strategic direction, sourcing investment opportunities, overseeing capital markets, and operations. Previously, Scott was Vice President of Acquisitions at Thor Equities. There, he was responsible for acquisitions in the Southeast United States including Miami, Washington, DC, Nashville, Austin and Charleston and completed in excess of $2 Billion of acquisitions, focusing on urban retail and mixed-use assets.

Torose Equities is a Miami-based real estate investment firm focused on value-add urban retail, office, and mixed-use opportunities in Southeastern United States. Some of the team’s most high-profile acquisitions include the former Palm Beach Post site in West Palm Beach; Cube Wynwood office building; Offices at Atria in Downtown Sarasota; and a portfolio of properties in Downtown St. Petersburg. 

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Firm managing partner Aaron Strauss sits down with Pine Tree CEO and Founder Peter Borzak to discuss building, growing, and positioning a $3 billion/20 million SF retail portfolio for opportunities in 2023 and beyond.

(Courtesy of Pine Tree, LLC):

Peter Borzak is the Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of Pine Tree. In that role, he has been developing, acquiring, managing, operating, and selling grocery- and box-anchored open-air shopping centers for over 28 years. Pine Tree currently has a portfolio of 115 owned and managed shopping centers manages representing approximately 20 million square feet across the continental United States. Pine Tree has offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Minneapolis. Pine Tree’s client base is primarily global institutional investors.

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