Real Estate Forum

JONATHAN B. HORN, 38 Managing Partner and Principal Besen & Associates Inc.

Horn has been involved in more than $3 billion in total trade volume, including his time as senior managing director of a New York private equity fund, where he acquired large portfolios of performing residential paper. Under Horn’s management, Besen’s Special Assets group and the New Jersey office has become one of the most active small balance advisory shop in the state. Horn expects the New Jersey market will continue to produce a tremendous amount of opportunity, both in the near term and future, for special assets as well as traditional investment sales.

JASON KAPLAN, 38
President
Kaplan Cos.

The third generation to lead the family firm, Kaplan handles overall strategic vision for the company as well as its day-to-day activities. He made the decision to focus on multifamily development and, as such, handled negotiation, approval and development of transactions including the Villages at Cinnaminson Harbour and the Gateway at Carteret, a mixed-use urban redevelopment of the brownfield site in Carteret into 400 units.

JOHN LAVALLEY, 27
Vice President
Onyx Equities, LLC

Since joining Onyx, LaValley has been played a role in over $350 million worth of value-added and opportunistic investments. He also serves as a portfolio head, responsible for providing strategic direction and overseeing the implementation of new and existing business plans. LaValley also developed Onyx’s internship program, which provides exceptional candidates the opportunity to join the investment team and assist them on live transactions. He has been involved in commercial real estate since his late teens, when he worked on residential construction for his uncle’s firm. He is originally from Westchester, so New Jersey was always part of his real estate focus.

CLARK MACHEMER, 41
Vice President and Regional
Development Officer
The Rockefeller Group

Over the past few years, Machemer has taken a leadership role in projects including the development of BASF Corp.’s North American headquarters in Florham Park and Goya’s future headquarters in Jersey City. He currently oversees development opportunities for the Northeast US region. Major projects under way include the Green at Florham Park, a 268- acre master-planned sustainable development that serves as the headquarters for the New York Jets NFL franchise as well as BASF. Machemer has helped the Rockefeller Group to earn two consecutive NAIOP Deal of the Year Awards.

JORDAN METZ, 30 Vice President Bussel Realty Corp

Metz focuses regionally in Central New Jersey, and specifically with clients who have port-centric (Port Newark/Elizabeth) locations. In the past 12 months, his most notable deals include the sale of a 100,000-square-foot industrial property in Carteret with a 10-year lease, and in Edison, a seven-year lease for 75,000 square feet at Raritan Center. He has received accolades in a variety of trade publications, and contributes to the Cure For Cancer charitable foundation.

GREGORY NALBANDIAN, 42 Senior Vice President and Managing Director NorthMarq Capital LLC

Nalbandian oversees the New Jersey operation for NorthMarq Capital. During his 8. 5 years with the company, he has completed over $2 billion in debt and equity placements. One of his recent notable transactions was the arrangement of $35 million of institutional joint venture equity for Advance Realty Group to acquire the New Jersey Center of Excellence at Bridgewater. Nalbandian believes that a well-educated labor pool and excellent supply-demand fundamentals consistently rank New Jersey as a premier real estate market.

WILLIAM O’KEEFE, 37 Senior Vice President Cassidy Turley

During his career, O’Keefe has successfully negotiated more than six million square feet of leases. Since joining Cassidy Turley in May of 2012, he has completed over 225,000 square feet of leases. Initially, he entered the field to utilize his intuitive sales and marketing background to help make a positive difference in the universal commercial real estate decision-making processes tenants and landlords often face. Today O’Keefe focuses on expanding Cassidy Turley’s Tenant and Landlord Advisory and Brokerage Services as Acting Broker of Record for New Jersey. He also actively mentors associates at the firm.

DAVID OPPER, 39 Senior Vice President CBRE

Since joining CBRE in 1996, Opper has represented various Fortune 500 tenants, institutions and privately held companies in the leasing and disposition of real estate holdings. In a four-year period, he completed over 200

transactions totaling approximately five million square feet with an aggregate value over $1 billion. He also heads up CBRE New Jersey’s Law Firm Practice Group, which specializes in law firm tenancies, and helped to create its specialized Pharmaceutical Practice Group. Opper grew up in Bergen County and comes from a family in the real estate development business. “My mother was a real estate broker, my father and brother are developers and my cousins are also brokers,” he says.