By Joshua Burd
The next Rutgers Center for Real Estate symposium is only weeks away, with a fast-growing list of speakers who will share their insights on tackling distressed commercial real estate.
Slated for Feb. 7, the program will focus on a fictional case study involving a failing mixed-use redevelopment project. Organizers aim to bring that scenario to life with the help of more than a dozen industry professionals, from developers and attorneys to lenders and investors, including:
- Joel Bergstein, executive chairman of Lincoln Equities Group
- Joshua Schainker, director with Houlihan Lokey
- Jason Teele, member with Sills Cummis & Gross PC
- Tammy Jones, CEO of Basis Investments
- Billy Procida, CEO and president Procida Funding & Advisors
- Christopher Coiley, first senior vice president with Valley National Bank
- Joseph Schwartz, partner with Riker Danzig
- Marjorie Perry, CEO and president of MZM Construction Management Co.
- Stephen Cassidy, president of Denholtz Properties
This symposium at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. with registration and continental breakfast, while the program will run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. A snow date is scheduled for Feb. 8.
“The case study is packed with every imaginable challenge a failing redevelopment project could possibly encounter,” said Ted Zangari, a member with Sills Cummis, who will moderate the panel discussion. “As a result, the panelists dissecting the hypothetical will feature a wide range of top industry professionals who will assume a variety of roles, from restructuring advisers and bankruptcy counsel assisting the owner (debtor) and the construction lender (secured creditor) to a receiver and a capital markets broker who will pitch the project to an institutional and an entrepreneurial take-out/rescue investor.”
“In addition to the dozen panelists, we will have a variety of ‘subject matter experts’ in the audience who will field pin-point questions on very specific issues within the fact pattern.”
The program titled “Your Mixed-Use Redevelopment Project Is In Distress. Now What?” will begin with an interview of Jonathan Schultz, co-founder and managing principal of Onyx Equities, by Ron Ladell of AvalonBay Communities, who serves as chair of the Center for Real Estate’s advisory board. That will give way to the panelists’ response to the issues-based case study, authored by Zangari and George Jacobs of Jacobs Enterprises, who are both executive committee members with Rutgers center.
Organizers announced several new speakers last week, noting that Bergstein will represent a developer in the case study, while Schainker and Teele will serve as finance restructuring adviser and bankruptcy counsel, respectively, drawing on their own vast experience. Jones and Procida will bring their own expertise, assuming the role of prospective “take-out” or “rescue” investors in an attempt to save the project.
“We will continue to introduce the panelists to the New Jersey real estate community in groupings over the next few weeks,” Zangari said. “The names will include CRE veterans from out of state who are tops in their field and will add a national dimension to the discussion.”
The event is set to be the Center for Real Estate’s first of 2024, as it draws continued support from some of the industry’s leading players. That began in early 2013 when Paul V. Profeta, the president of Paul V. Profeta and Associates Inc. and the publisher of Real Estate NJ, donated $1.5 million to establish a chair in the field, seeding a program that has since recruited a host of industry leaders in New Jersey to help set the academic course, share their real-world experiences and provide students with networking and job opportunities.
The center has also hosted several distinctive conferences and seminars to provide commercial real estate executives and professionals with a higher level of attention to issues of importance to the industry, organizers noted. Through events such as the upcoming symposium, it seeks to engage industry experts and policymakers on the role that real estate plays in New Jersey’s and the region’s economy.
Click here to register for the program.
