he says. “My grandfather was a real estate lawyer and real estate
was the place to be when I started out in 2003. At that moment,
everything came together.”
In his new role, Freeman helps developers, private equity
funds and REITs in the construction, acquisition, disposition,
financing and leasing of a wide range of properties. He also represents borrowers in acquisition financings, refinancings, construction loans, loan assumptions and defeasances. Among his
deals are Federal Realty’s $189-million acquisition of a retail
portfolio in White Marsh, MD and approximately $400 million
of financings for B.F. Saul Real Estate Investment Trust and Saul
Centers Inc.
Ryan Gallagher, 32
Senior Vice President
Grubb & Ellis Co.
Newport Beach, CA
“The truth is, I fell into commercial real
estate,” admits Gallagher. “I really wanted
to go to New York and get into investment banking, but I was
recruited by CB Richard Ellis to work with their financial consulting group. I thought that would lend itself to a career in
investment banking, but once I understood the commercial real
estate business, I grew passionate about it.”
Today Gallagher, who has been an SVP with Grubb & Ellis
for half of his 10-year career, represents private and institutional
clients in the disposition and acquisition of office and industrial
assets throughout the West and Southwest. In the past three
years, he has handled more than $1.2 billion in sales on behalf of
such clients as Bank of America, GE Capital, MetLife and Rreef.
He was also involved in the $2-billion acquisition of Cabot
Industrial Trust and $950-million CMBS refinancing of PGP
Properties. Gallagher, who has been named one of Grubb’s top
investment brokers and presented with an Emerging Leader
Award by Naiop, would ultimately like to launch his own opportunistic private equity fund.
Andrea R. Gendel, 35
Of Counsel
Pryor Cashman LLP
New York City
Gendel advises and represents owners,
developers and tenants across the country
in leases, purchase and sale agreements and construction contracts. She is credited with closing more than one million sf in
leases for clients such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Quiksilver,
Titan Outdoor, SavillsGranite, Rose Associates, Legal Aid and
Thor Equities. She’s also helped the Related Cos. obtain the initial construction financing for New York City’s AOL Time
Warner Center and represented the buyer of an $86-million,
2.5-million-sf industrial portfolio.
At Pryor Cashman, Gendel created and organized new corporate policy and review processes for site development and
franchise lease review for an international education franchise
company, and she has trained more than 1,000 corporate client
staff and franchisees on those topics. “After 10 years, I still love
what I do,” says Gendel, who aims to become a partner at Pryor
Cashman. “I want to be a mentor to my junior colleagues and a
role model to other women in the real estate field.”
Sky Groden, 33
Senior Director, Industrial Brokerage
Cushman & Wakefield
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Groden joined Cushman & Wakefield’s
Florida research department in 1995 while
still in college. Since then, he has worked in various capacities at
the company and currently leads a team of four that has been
involved in industrial transactions valued at $700 million and
totaling 10 million sf throughout the Southeast. Groden picked
up the Rookie of the Year award in 2000 and has been a C&W
Top 10 Producer for the past two years. Last year alone, his team
racked up in excess of $245 million in lease and sales volume.
The group received the Naiop South Florida Industrial
Brokerage Team of the Year award in both 2006 and 2007.
The executive, who is actively involved with the
Broward/Palm Beach Chapters of Kids in Distress and Quantum
House, intends to continue his professional career at C&W. “I’d
like to continue to grow our industrial brokerage team in Broward
and Palm Beach Counties and continue to support initiatives that
will help strengthen the communities in which we serve.”
Jessica Hayden, 33
Vice President
Jones Lang LaSalle
Chicago
In forming Jones Lang LaSalle’s headquarters location advisory practice four years ago,
Hayden was able to fuse together various aspects of the business
that she found appealing. “I always had an interest in architecture
and urban planning, but I was trained as a business consultant, helping firms make the right choices for their futures,” she says. The new
division enables her “to combine these areas into a position that is
interesting and adds value to companies and communities.”
The 11-year industry veteran is head of the practice, which is
now viewed as a fundamental component of JLL’s corporate service
offering. The VP is looking to take the group global. One notable
deal was the merger of Mead and Westvaco, where Hayden led the
consolidation of four offices to one in Richmond, VA. That move
came with more than $5 million in state incentives and is expected
to save Mead Westvaco $200 million in operational costs.
Mike A. Hoeck, 27
Vice President
CB Richard Ellis
San Diego
Within his six years in the business, Hoeck
has risen to a level where he leads a multi-ten-
ant office leasing and sales team that assists primarily institutional
clients and Fortune 500 firms throughout the West. In 2006 and 2007,
the VP took part in more than $1 billion of sales deals, and he has
racked up over one million sf of leases in the past 36 months.
CBRE has recognized Hoeck as a young leader in its San Diego
Central office, and in 2007, he was one of 30 young professionals to
complete the Emerging Broker Training program. He is also the co-president of the Naiop Developing Leaders board of directors,
where he coordinated a three-tier mentorship initiative and several
educational programs.
