Alex Klatskin
General partner
Forsgate Industrial Partners
The recipient of NAIOP New Jersey’s Lifetime Achievement Award — one that just was renamed for his late father, Charles — he is respected among his peers and the driving force behind Forsgate’s longevity and long-established commitment to developing superior buildings at superior logistics sites.
Jack Klugmann
CEO and president
Accurate Builders
With a knack for transforming the train lines, Klugman has played an intricate part in directing his Lakewood-based company to redevelop projects in Raritan, Bound Brook and Plainfield — to name a few.
Jonathan Kushner
President
Kushner Real Estate Group
Bayonne and Jersey City — those towns can’t be spoken about without mentioning Kushner, who is the vision behind creating epicenters for dining, shopping, entertainment, hospitality and living. His projects all include a vision that not only creates a well-balanced lifestyle for residents, but a lasting impact on the city as a whole.
Ron Ladell
Senior vice president
AvalonBay
Long one of the most prolific and active multifamily builders in the state, Ladell continues to transform communities. His latest project will include some 17,000 square feet of retail as part of a new mixed-use destination at Princeton Junction’s transit village — a $300 million project at the train station.
Jeff Milanaik
Principal
Bridge Development Partners
The king of industrial continues his company’s growth in a booming segment of the warehouse and logistics market. One of the latest projects involves the nearly 360,000 square feet of new industrial space at the former site of a blighted manufacturing facility in Belleville.
Clark Machemer
Senior managing director
Crow Holdings Industrial
Machemer has been full of surprises for much of the last few years, starting with his move to Crow Holdings Industrial in 2018 after nearly two decades with Rockefeller Group. Machemer is keenly focused on what comes next for CHI’s Northeast expansion strategy. The firm has a pipeline in the region amounting to more than 7 million square feet, with the potential to deliver much-needed warehouse and logistics space to a vastly undersupplied market.
Mark Meisner
Founder and president
The Birch Group
A creative dealmaker who takes the long view and employs a methodical approach to real estate investment. Over the past two years alone, Meisner has led the expansion of the Birch Group’s portfolio and acquired over $750 million in suburban office properties.
Nicole Meyer; Michael Sommer
Principal; Executive vice president
Kushner Cos.
Duo has firm doing big things across the state, including expansion of Pier Village project in Long Branch.
Jack Morris
CEO and president
Edgewood Properties
One of the top developers, business leaders and philanthropists has remained active on a number of projects during the pandemic. The recent groundbreaking of the $750 million Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, a 12-story, 510,000-square-foot facility in New Brunswick, represents a major expansion of the Rutgers Cancer Institute, which can build a world-class cancer center here and attract people from around the world.
Sam Morreale; Ross Chomik
Founder and managing member; Managing partner
Vison Real Estate Partners
Longtime prolific suburban developer in Morris County started to unveil some of its urban efforts with 1776 on the Green earlier this year. The institutional-quality asset in an is unrivaled in its downtown suburban setting, where its presence and access to shops and dining is a proven combination for success.
Wendy Neu
Chairman and CEO
Hugo Neu
Neu is actively speaking out on more issues (including a need for businesses to support sustainability efforts) and was named to Gov. Phil Murphy’s council to help restart the state’s economy after the effects of the pandemic. She is a strong advocate of cleaner, safer, healthier energy alternatives in the form of wind, solar, hydrogen power, enhanced energy storage and new technologies for all businesses.
Ed Russo
President and chief operating officer
Russo Development
He is doing projects with many of the developers on this list — commercial and residential — which is just one of the reasons he has the biggest multifamily pipeline in state. And his vision to reimagine communities with deep histories of commerce speaks for itself. His current plans for the former site of the (Bergen) Record newspaper include transforming it into pedestrian-friendly parks connecting Hackensack’s Main Street residential, retail and office area with the waterfront. Plans also include 30,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.
John Saraceno; Jonathan Schultz
Co-founders
Onyx Equities
Onyx continues its evolution of Gateway (and host of other projects) and most recently announced more restaurants have secured leases at the Junction, a 100,000-square-foot dining and retail experience on the concourse that will bring together the tens of thousands who enter the buildings each week and will have a great impact in the city of Newark.
Debra Tantleff
Founding principal
Tantum Real Estate
Viewed as an inspiration for women in the business, and a thought leader, but her work — such as the development of an affordable housing property in Jersey City geared toward veterans and other vulnerable populations — speaks for itself. She operates a certified Women’s Business Enterprise focused on creating boutique multifamily and mixed-use communities in the New Jersey region.
Eric Witmondt
CEO
Woodmont Properties
Witmondt continues to strategically grow his firm’s industrial portfolio of well-located and high-quality assets. There’s tremendous potential for industrial, bolstered by skyrocketing demand for e-commerce, and the company continues to seek out value-add opportunities in key markets across the U.S.
Ralph Zucker
President
Somerset Development
The master developer of the “metroburb” project Bell Works said leasing is another example of pent-up demand for quality space that is still thriving, and the development announced that all 52 of what it is calling its “Ready to Wear” designer office suites now are leased. The demand has been so strong that Bell Works announced it is putting together five more suites, ranging in size from 800 to 2,000 square feet.
