ROI Influencers: Real Estate 2023 — Banking & Finance

By
ROI-NJ Staff
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Daniel Alger; Sherry Wang
Managing directors
Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group
Alger and Wang lead a Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group that focuses heavily on addressing socioeconomic gaps in housing and health care.

 


Christopher Coiley
First senior vice president & commercial mortgage division head of N.Y. and N.J.
Valley Bank
Coiley manages all the Wayne-based bank’s commercial mortgage relationships in the New Jersey and New York markets.

 


Tom Comiskey
Regional president
M&T Bank
Like all bank heads, Comiskey is working to contain issues involving office leases in the state.

 


Alberto Garofalo
President, N.J.
Bank of America
BofA continues to lead the way on training, mentoring and supporting next generation of students and workers.

 


Richard Gerwitz
Managing director & co-head, community capital business
Citibank
Gerwitz oversees lending to the affordable rental housing community in the U.S. and participates in a broad range of community building activities.

 


Bernel Hall
CEO & president
N.J. Community Capital
NJCC recently was awarded $800,000 from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to support the development of 10 permanent affordable housing units in Essex County.

 


Andrew Houston
Director of acquisitions
Link Industrial Properties
A best-in-class industrial real estate acquisitions and operations professional.

 


Michael Klein
Senior managing director
JLL
He is the lead of the Morristown-based practice, alongside fellow Senior Managing Director Jose Cruz, who spearheads JLL’s investment sales platform in the region.

 


Tim Lizura
Senior vice president, real estate and capital projects
N.J. Performing Arts Center
Former top official at Economic Development Authority is now heading up NJPAC’s efforts to create an arts district around its main facility.

 


Chris Maher
Chair & CEO
OceanFirst
OceanFirst Bank, one of the largest and oldest community-based financial institutions headquartered in the state, delivers commercial and residential financing, treasury management, trust and asset management.

 


Mark Meisner
Founder & president
The Birch Group
Group preaches taking long view in investing. It’s working. Since 2014, it has expanded its portfolio of income-generating properties to include more than 6.5 million square feet of value-add office assets.

 


Ken Pasternak
Chair & CEO
KABR Group
The chief of the Ridgefield Park-based investment firm is always on the lookout for tremendous value. His latest deal is in Connecticut.

 


Billy Procida
CEO & president
Procida Funding and Advisors
His firm recently acquired the remaining phase at Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, called Plaza Grande, which has faced setbacks since 2008 recession. Procida is looking to finish the remaining 283 luxury residences.

 


Ira Robbins
Chair & CEO
Valley Bank
Bank made a great investment in its people when it recently opened its new headquarters in Morristown.

 


Itay Ron
Senior vice president & Northeast market leader
Faropoint
The Hoboken-based real estate investment fund recently acquired two industrial parks totaling 770,064 square feet located in Allendale and Mahwah.

 


Jeff Sica
Founder & CEO
Circle Squared Alternative Investments
He continues to provide funding that helps projects across the state get to the finish line.

 


Walter Sierotko
Executive vice president & chief lending officer
Provident Bank
Sierotko is responsible for the strategic direction of its commercial lending function, as well as overseeing the management and development of the bank’s commercial lending lines of business.

 


Jeff Turkanis
Chief investment officer
Veris Residential Inc.
Turkanis has been able to unload five of the six Harborside properties (only Harborside 5 remains) for $524 million this year.

 


Kevin Wolfer
CEO
Kennedy Funding
The direct private lender made Englewood its headquarters in early 2022, which Wolfer said represented a new era of expansion for Kennedy Funding and was the culmination of over 35 years of hard work, growth and success. The move came just as Kennedy Funding surpasses $4 billion in closed loans.

See all our honorees below:

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