New York Deal Makers Power Panel

The last session of recent EisnerAmper Real Estate Private Equity Summit  was a New York deal makers power panel titled “If You Can Make It Here, Why Go Anywhere Else?” Key local operators shared their insights of the most successful deals of 2015. 

The speakers on the panel included Mark Van Zandt, Principal - Head of East Coast, GreenOak Real Estate Advisors; Nicholas Bienstock, Co-Managing Partner, Savanna; David Schonbraun, Co-Chief Investment Officer, SL Green; Fredric Leffel, President, Kaufman New Ventures; Murat Agirnasli, President & CEO, Agime Group; and Rance MacFarland, Chief Executive Officer, Pizzarotti IBC. 

The panelists discussed some of their companies’ most successful deals from the last year, giving the audience a look into how these deals came about as well as the steps the companies took to bring the deals to reality. The informative discussion gave the audience a rare look inside the decision-making process of each company and also offered a chance for questions and answers.

The speakers left the audience with a few useful takeaways from the session.  The first was that rising interest rates will eventually filter into cap rates, which could affect the underwriting and could ultimately affect sales potential. 

The panelists also cautioned the audience about the capitalizing demand of the technology tenants in the Silicon Valley of New York. If the technology market changes, the demand for Midtown South will change as well. Much of the growth of the technology companies is based off of the ability to raise capital. Lastly, the demand is starting to grow into Brooklyn and Queens and tenants may begin to leave Manhattan. This calls for the need for new product in that market.  Factors such as these are all taken into account whenever large organizations approach new deals.