By Joshua Burd
Veteran office broker Robert Donnelly will receive NAIOP New Jersey’s lifetime achievement award later this year, one of several honorees unveiled Thursday by the commercial real estate association.
Donnelly, an executive vice chairman with Cushman & Wakefield and a member of the firm since 1979, will headline the chapter’s 36th annual Commercial Real Estate Awards gala, slated for May 18 at The Palace at Somerset Park in Franklin. The slate of honorees, which the organization announced during its annual meeting, includes:
- Charles Klatskin Lifetime Achievement Award: Robert Donnelly, Cushman & Wakefield
- Impact Award: Christopher Paladino, New Brunswick Development Corp.
- Impact Award: George Jacobs, Jacobs Enterprises Inc.
- Industry Service Award: Meryl A.G. Gonchar, Sills Cummis & Gross PC
- Caren S. Franzini Public Partner Award: Announcement coming soon
NAIOP revealed the slate Thursday during its annual meeting at the Hilton Short Hills, which drew hundreds of New Jersey commercial real estate industry leaders. The chapter swore in its new president, Rockefeller Group’s Mark Shearer, who took the reins from Hartz Mountain Industries’ Gus Milano, as well as a new board of trustees for a two-year term.
The program also included a presentation by Spencer Levy, a global client strategist and senior economic adviser with CBRE, and a panel discussion on adaptive reuse in commercial real estate. Moderated by Gensler’s Dana Nalbantian, the panel featured Eugene Diaz of Prism Capital Partners, Edison Properties’ Doug Sarini and Chris Cozic of GenMab U.S.
