Crow Holdings Industrial continues to expand Northeast presence, hiring Chervak for Pa. push

Crow Holdings Industrial, the real estate firm with a major New Jersey office, has hired a new lieutenant for Northeast Senior Managing Director Clark Machemer, tasked with spearheading projects in the Garden State and Pennsylvania — particularly the company’s expansion into the Lehigh Valley.

Johanna Chervak will be vice president of the Northeast region for CHI, a unit of national real estate firm Crow Holdings, reporting to Machemer. She joins the firm after more than 20 years with Rockefeller Group Development Corp., most recently as director of real estate development.

Clark Machemer. (File photo)

“I’ve worked with Johanna for many years, and have always been impressed by her tenacity, professionalism and ability to manage even the most complex intricacies of large-scale real estate development projects,” Machemer said in a prepared statement. “We are already eyeing some very exciting properties in Pennsylvania that Johanna will be instrumental in developing, and we’re confident in her ability to help us continue our strong momentum across our entire Northeast operation.”

CHI started its New Jersey operations in 2018, hiring Machemer — a former Rockefeller exec — and bolstering his team with several hires in 2019. This year, it made its first marquee property sale, the $164 million disposition of 50 Veronica Ave., Franklin Township, a new 925,000-square-foot property leased to LG Electronics USA.

“Under Clark’s leadership, Crow Holdings Industrial has already completed one banner project and built up a strong development pipeline, and I’m thrilled to join such a talented group of professionals to identify new opportunities, chart new territory and lead the company into new geographies,” Chervak said in a statement. “As our world continues to move to an e-commerce economy, which has only been intensified by the current pandemic, there’s tremendous demand today for industrial space. I couldn’t be more excited to work at a storied firm like CHI, which approaches all of its projects with a unique level of integrity and expertise.”