The Dealmakers’ Edge with A.Y. Strauss

Sebastian Post, CFA, is Managing Partner and Co-Head of Investments at Lionheart Strategic Management, where he is responsible for sourcing new investments, capital raising, and managing operations. He also serves on the firm’s Investment Committee. Lionheart invests across real estate credit and equity strategies throughout the United States. Sebastian joined Fisher Brothers in 2011 and was invol...

Eli Edwards is a Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Equity, US at Fortress Investment Group, based in Menlo Park. Since joining Fortress in 2011, he has focused on opportunistic equity and distressed debt acquisitions across property types and markets throughout the United States. Prior to joining Fortress, Eli worked in real estate investment banking at Barclays and previously worked at Ba...

Ron Diamond is the Founder and Chairman of Diamond Wealth, a syndicate of more than 100 family offices ranging in size from $250 million to $30 billion, with whom he has invested for more than 20 years. The firm focuses on private markets, including private equity, real estate, venture capital, credit, and special situations. He is also the Founder, Host, and CEO of Family Office World Media and h...

Alfie Best is the founder of Wyldecrest Parks, a residential mobile home park operator with 120 parks across the UK. He has built the company into Europe’s largest residential park operator, with a business valued at more than £1.2 billion, and is now planning to establish operations in the United States. Born into a Romani Gypsy family in Leicestershire, Alfie started buying and selling cars and...

Ryan Brome is the Chief Operating Officer of Investments at Forum Investment Group, an institutional platform with nearly $6.5 billion in total capitalization. He leads investment management operations across Forum’s development, ownership, and credit businesses, overseeing the investment lifecycle from sourcing through portfolio management and helping align the teams, processes, and risk controls...

Andrew Morris is a Managing Director at Blue Owl, where he supports the firm’s Real Assets business as a member of the Legal Team. His work spans the firm’s net lease, real estate credit, and digital infrastructure strategies. Before joining Blue Owl, Andrew served as Associate General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at First Eagle Alternative Credit. Earlier in his career, he practiced at Ki...

Seth Fisher is a Principal and Head of Special Situations at Prime Finance and a member of the firm’s Special Situations Investment Committee. He is responsible for investment, portfolio construction, and asset management activity for the strategy, which Prime now refers to as Strategic Capital Solutions. Prior to joining Prime Finance, Seth was Chief Investment Officer of Equity Investments for S...

Henry Stimler serves as an Executive Managing Director on Newmark’s Capital Markets Strategies team, where he specializes in originating and structuring in multifamily debt and equity with an emphasis on large bespoke portfolio transactions. Based in the firm’s New York headquarters, Stimler is known for guiding traditions Tri-State investors into new high growth markets across the U.S., including...

Sharon Solomon is a principal at Northlake Development Group, a family office development business with a pipeline of residential and multifamily projects across Santa Fe, New Mexico and South Florida. At Northlake, Sharon leads development strategy, capital planning, and partnership structuring, building the firm alongside her two sons as a multi-generational platform. Prior to launching Northlak...

When Abraham Cooper left JLL in January 2020 to launch Polly Park Capital, the world shut down within weeks. He saw it as an opening. By summer, he had financed Hudson Heritage, a $65 million construction loan for a ShopRite-anchored mixed-use community in upstate New York and one of the few retail construction loans to close anywhere in the country during the pandemic. Polly Park was built as a m...

Adam Steinberg is a Principal at Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, where he co-heads the equity business and chairs the equity approval committee. Since joining in 2004, Adam has focused exclusively on raising common equity for clients, closing transactions aggregating billions of dollars of capital across traditional and alternative asset classes. Prior to Ackman-Ziff, Adam spent four years as a pri...

Cannabis is showing up in more CRE conversations than ever, and most of the people having those conversations are figuring it out as they go. The asset class looks familiar enough on the surface that standard deal instincts seem to apply. They rarely do. Jennifer Cabrera and Sahar Ayinehsazian have guided landlords, lenders, and investors through enough of these deals to know where the assumptions...

Derrick Barker is the co-founder and CEO of Nectar, a real estate tech financing company that provides liquidity to commercial real estate sponsors across the country. Nectar has completed more than 140 deals across 29 states, deploying over $40 million to lower middle market and middle market operators who need access to equity trapped in their existing assets. After leaving Goldman Sachs, Derric...

Purpose-built student housing wasn't always an institutional asset class. When Jared was tracking the sector in college, two public companies dominated it and most developers hadn't touched it. His first deal in Syracuse required staking out an unresponsive seller on his morning commute just to get a conversation going — and delivered 40% net returns in 18 months when it sold to a public...

Jeff Gronning is the CEO of Cannon Hill Capital Partners, a vertically integrated real estate private equity firm formed through a management-led buyout of the investment management business of Columbia Property Trust. Prior to founding Cannon Hill, Jeff served as Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at Columbia Property Trust. Before Columbia, Jeff spent 15 years at Normandy Real...

Chad Lavender is the President of Capital Markets for North America at Newmark. He has more than 15 years of commercial real estate experience, particularly in healthcare and senior housing. Over his career, Chad has completed more than $50 billion in transactions across the U.S., beginning his journey in markets like Alabama and Dallas. Prior to joining Newmark, Chad worked in high-rise developme...

James Ryan founded RYCO Capital in 2018 and has led the firm since its inception. Since establishing the company, James has personally overseen all aspects of its growth and operations. His team has grown and expanded, and he has been a contrarian to great success, acquiring multifamily properties across New York City. Prior to founding RYCO Capital, James held leadership and finance roles across...

Jason Bordainick started his first company from a dorm room at the University of Virginia. Off Campus Partners became the nation's largest online marketplace for student housing and was eventually acquired by CoStar. That success gave him credibility, momentum, and the confidence to take on something harder. In 2010, he and his childhood friend Andy Cavaluzzi decided to build a business in af...

Henry Stimler serves as an Executive Managing Director on Newmark’s Capital Markets Strategies team, where he specializes in originating and structuring in multifamily debt and equity with an emphasis on large bespoke portfolio transactions. Based in the firm’s New York headquarters, Stimler is known for guiding traditional Tri-State investors into new high growth markets across the U.S., includin...

Ran Eliasaf is the founder of Northwind Group, a real estate private credit platform based in New York. He founded the firm in 2008 and oversees all investment activity. Throughout his career, Ran has executed more than 300 real estate transactions totaling over $5.5 billion, investing in commercial properties in New York City and healthcare and senior-living properties across the U.S. In 2017, he...

Diego Hodara is the founder and CEO of Titanium Realty Group, a real estate investment and development company focused on mixed-use and residential assets in transit-oriented markets across the New York metropolitan area. Titanium Realty Group has close to 2,000 units under development or completed in Jersey City, NJ, and Port Chester, NY, representing more than $800 million in total project value...

When you strip business down to its core, it’s about people. Every deal, every partnership, and every bit of growth comes from how well your team works together. Real culture comes from integrity, empathy, and a shared belief in doing things the right way. Strong teams start with trust. They create an environment where people can make mistakes, recover, and keep moving forward. Leaders who protect...

Evan Bell is Managing Partner and co-founder of Lorimer Capital, a direct portfolio lender that provides creative financing solutions for commercial real estate opportunities across the eastern U.S. He has over two decades of expertise in structured real estate credit products and started his career as a real estate finance attorney, representing major institutions like Morgan Stanley, Barclays, L...

Norman Bobrow is the president of Norman Bobrow & Co., Inc., one of New York's leading independently-owned, tenant-focused commercial real estate brokerages. A third-generation real estate professional and lifelong New Yorker, Norman launched the firm in 1980 with a clear mission to represent tenants exclusively and deliver results with precision, integrity, and relentless advocacy. Over...

Jonathan Dulberg has nearly 20 years of experience acquiring and operating real estate throughout the U.S. and Europe for both institutional and privately-held real estate firms. Since 2010, he has been at Time Equities Inc., a New York-based investment and development firm, where he serves as the Director of Acquisitions. Jonathan focuses on sub-institutional investments ranging from $10 to $50 m...