From left: Justin Lupo, Joni Sweetwood, Matt Wolf and Peter Wisniewski were among the honorees at The Kislak Co. Inc.’s 2022 awards ceremony. — Courtesy: Kislak Co.
By Joshua Burd
The Kislak Co. Inc. highlighted four of its top producers recently during its annual awards program, where it also marked a year with more than $1 billion in total sales volume.
Honorees at the event, which took place last month at Vine & Oak Tavern in Cranford, included:
- Senior Vice President Justin Lupo (Jay I. Kislak Producer of the Year award)
- Senior Vice President Matt Wolf (Sima Kislak Jelin Salesperson of the Year award)
- Executive Vice President Joni Sweetwood (Sales Transactions award)
- Executive Vice President Peter Wisniewski (Lease Transactions award)
“Following a record-breaking 2021, our team had an even more extraordinary 2022 setting new company and market records by nearly every measure with closed deal volume of more than $1.2 billion,” said Robert Holland, Kislak’s president. “Our awards recipients along with the other members of our sales team achieved record sales and I honor them for their tremendous efforts and amazing accomplishments.”
According to the Woodbridge-based firm, the Jay I. Kislak Producer of the Year award goes to the individual who generated the highest sales during the past year and is named after the Kislak Organization’s late chairman, who was an inspiring entrepreneur, real estate pioneer and philanthropist. The honoree for 2022, Lupo, recorded his best year as a broker after closing more than a dozen multifamily sales spanning more than 650 units in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with a combined value of $130 million.
His 2022 transactions include the $22.5 million sale of a 115-unit multifamily portfolio in Newton and the $51 million sale of Creekside North Apartments and Creekside South Apartments, two neighboring properties with a total of 261 units. Lupo, who joined Kislak in 2014, also earned the distinction of becoming its all-time leading salesperson in terms of gross commissions earned in any single year during its history.
The Sima Kislak Jelin Salesperson of the Year award is presented to the individual whose performance and professionalism during the past year demonstrated the highest standards of excellence, according to a news release. The recipient is chosen by a vote of the sales and management teams, while the award is named after the late Jelin, the daughter of the firm’s founder, who was an executive, key mentor and motivator to many of its salespeople.
To that end, Wolf also recorded his personal best in 2022 while closing 19 multifamily sales with more than 750 units in Pennsylvania for $100 million, Kislak said. His 2022 transactions included the $48 million sale of a 300-unit multifamily property in central Pennsylvania and the $15.3 million sale of 90-unit multifamily portfolio in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
Sweetwood, for her part, earned the Sales Transactions honor after closing 25 multifamily sales with 900 units in New Jersey for more than $125 million. The firm noted that 2022 marked her best year and the second in which she earned the award, with sales including the $50 million trade of a 10-building, 324-unit portfolio and two cell towers in Elizabeth and the $29 million sale of a 132-unit multifamily property in Keyport.
Wisniewski, who joined Kislak in 2015, won his sixth consecutive Lease Transactions award after a year in which he inked 31 commercial leases and several commercial sales for $20 million, the news release said. Those deals included four new leases totaling more than 13,000 square feet of office and technology space in the Mount Arlington Corporate III center and the $2.8 million sale of a 17,010-square-foot warehouse facility in Branchburg, among others.
Wisniewski leads the firm’s commercial sales and leasing affiliate, Kislak Commercial Real Estate Services Inc.
