Page 28 - RE-NJ

26 OCTOBER 2024
Rendering by M+H Architects/Courtesy: Accordia
Accordia is seeking approvals for a two-building, 500,000-square-foot industrial development at the intersection of Route 46 and Inter-
state 80 in Roxbury, with plans to break ground as soon as 2025.
would be in trouble and how they
were going to need some help, and
because we were always a small
entrepreneurial fi rm, we felt like
we’re well equipped to fi x bad real
estate. Whether that’s bad by lease
terms, bad by fi nancing strategy, bad
by physical aspects, there’s always
some way for us to increase value,
because we have a pretty diverse
background and expertise.
“So we came up with this plan to
try to help some of the institutions,
some of the banks, some of the non-
real estate owners to fi x their assets
and to create value,” he added. “And
we’ve been making a big push on
that side of the equation. And the
plan was to have different division
heads who come in and fi nd real
rainmakers and producers.”
BOGART ADMITS THAT, “COMING OUT OF A
20-year partnership, I was very much
looking forward to running my own
company and not having to make
decisions with groups of people.”
But that changed as he decided to
show the business plan to about a
half-dozen friends, confi dantes and
trusted colleagues that he had come
to know over three decades in real
estate.
“It very quickly changed my
opinion,” Bogart said. “I don’t need
to be the guy in charge if I can
collaborate with some of my closest
colleagues in the industry. So it was
an easy decision.”
That included Pizzolato, then
a managing director with JLL’s
Morristown-based capital markets
group, whom Bogart and Romano
had helped break into the business
roughly a decade earlier. The debt
and equity broker, who started as an
analyst with HFF before the fi rm was
acquired by JLL, would quickly rise
through the ranks while arranging
several deals for Accordia during
that time.
More importantly, Bogart said, he
had watched Pizzolato grow into
a leader in the fi eld, “and just to
see how impressive he was and his
ability to talk and make connections
and understand valuations of deals
blew me away.” So “when Matt came
to me and said he wanted to be a
part of it … it was natural for him to
fall into the acquisitions and capital
markets role.”
Pizzolato, for his part, said he wasn’t
initially looking for a change.
“They were friends, mentors, clients
over those years,” he said of the
Accordia team. “And as this sort
of Accordia 2.0 was coming about,
(Jason) shared the vision and started
to plant the seed.”
He added that he has “always
thought about being on the principal
side,” but balked at the idea of
working for a family offi ce or for a
larger institution where he’d be just a
small piece of the team. Conversely,
the thought of joining Accordia,
where he could become a partner
and continue to shepherd deals from
start to fi nish, “was something that
really attracted me.”
“And it’s guys that I’ve known for 10
years, too,” said Pizzolato, now the
fi rm’s executive vice president for
acquisitions and capital markets, “so
I wasn’t taking a risk of not knowing
who I’m working with.”
Recine, a veteran leasing broker
with JLL, followed a similar
path, starting as a sounding
board for Bogart after some 20
years of friendship and several
deals together in their respective
roles. Their conversations about
Accordia’s future began in early
January on a ski trip that Bogart,
Recine and Hayes took to Snowbird,
Utah — specifi cally, “on a chair lift
on the way up to the mountain”
— with Bogart noting that he
“was telling Frank about the new
business plan and, of course, asked
him for some advice.”
He later sent Recine the outline for
his formal input, only to have his
phone ring about two weeks later.
“I fi gured he wanted me to fi x his
car or quad,” Bogart joked. “(But)
he said he needed to talk about
something important. That’s when
he let me in on the very shocking
news that he was interested in the
business plan.”
Recine, by that point, had been a
broker for more than two decades
and one of the top performers in the
New Jersey offi ce sector. He began
in 2001 at CBRE, having earned a
law degree but instead opting for a
career in real estate, before moving
to Newmark in 2006 and then to JLL
in 2017 as part of a well-known team
that also included Tim Greiner, Blake
Goodman, Brendan McBride and
Colleen Maguire.
“It’s been an industry that’s treated
me really, really well,” Recine
said. “I don’t take it for granted by
any means. And, honestly, that’s
probably why I never considered
leaving.”
But the longtime broker, who also
began to dabble in development
during the pandemic, said the allure
of joining with Bogart and Accordia
“just hit me in the head one day.”
Those discussions moved quickly
because “we were all aligned as to
the vision and what we wanted to
accomplish,” even though neither
side took the decision lightly.
“At the end of the day, as we were
going into this, there’s business and
there’s friendship,” said Recine, now
a principal with Accordia. “So we
wanted to make sure that we were
doing it for the right reasons.”
He took comfort in the fact that they
were coming from different sides
of the business, he added, “because
I said, ‘If I’m going partner with
someone, I want someone who’s
different than me that has a different
skillset than I do.’”
BY THE SPRING, ACCORDIA HAD LARGELY
built out the team of top talent
that Bogart had envisioned. That
team included Hayes, who joined
the fi rm in 2011 after nearly three
years with Grubb & Ellis, where
he was a property manager whose
assignments included some fi ve
Accordia buildings.
He noted that the fi rm’s portfolio
has ebbed and fl owed. Importantly,
though, “we were never overgrowing
the staff, but growing diligently,
which was great because there’s
upturns and downturns.
“And through some of those lulls
in the markets, management was
always really integral in keeping the
business going, having cash fl ows
and keeping the back offi ce staff
and the operation up and running,”
Hayes said, enabling the company
to continue to pursue development
projects and new acquisitions.
Accordia is now off and running with
its updated strategy. It announced in
May that it had taken over property
management at a three-building,
73,163-square-foot portfolio of
medical offi ce buildings in Montvale
that Recine had repositioned, an
arrangement that predated his move