ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

JONATHAN KUSHNER

President

Kushner Real Estate Group

Jonathan Kushner has more than 20 years of real estate investment and management experience. He is responsible for the acquisition and development of all new projects, property management and leasing of over 12,000 rental apartment units and 6 million square feet of office, retail and industrial properties. He oversees the team at KRE Group that is forging ahead with a development pipeline of over 10 million square feet of residential and mixed-use projects. Jonathan holds a bachelor’s from New York University and was the recipient of the 2016 SmartCEO Future 50 Award.

RICHARD LITTON JR.

President

Harbor Group International

Harbor Group International is a leading global real estate investment and management firm. With $19 billion in real estate investment properties, the firm invests in and manages diversified property portfolios including office, retail and multifamily properties. With over 38 years of experience in the industry and approximately 1,400 employees worldwide, HGI continues to look for real estate investment opportunities. Its portfolio of affiliate-owned assets in New Jersey includes 42 multifamily properties, including 5,646 units from three transactions, and two office properties with a combined 1.17 million square feet. The total price at acquisition of HGI’s current New Jersey portfolio was about $1.64 million.

Richard Litton Jr. serves as the President of HGI and oversees day-to-day operations of the company. Litton chairs the HGI Investment and Credit Committees and is a member of HGI’s Executive Committee and the HGMC Operations Committee. In addition, he manages HGI’s Transactions Group and is involved in the institutional capital-raising efforts. Before joining HGI in 2004, Litton was a corporate law partner at Kaufman & Canoles, one of the largest law firms in Virginia. His practice focused on negotiating and structuring mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings and venture capital/private equity financing for privately held and public companies.

Litton graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s in foreign affairs and earned a J.D. from its School of Law. He serves on the boards of directors of Tidewater Friends of Foster Care and ACCESS College Foundation, and the board of visitors of Eastern Virginia Medical School.

JOSH SOLOMON

President/Co-founder

The DSF Group

With greater than $4.5 billion invested in over 12,000 multifamily units, offices in Boston and Washington D.C. and decades of deep-seated experience, The DSF Group strives to create unique, award-winning properties. The firm acquires well-located multifamily properties near transportation hubs and then repositions the properties through the implementation of well-thought-out renovations, amenities and technology. Its most recent deal in New Jersey was its purchase of The Mark Parsippany in Morris County, a 212-unit, four-story Class A, luxury apartment community in Parsippany, in July 2022. The firm also previously owned Halstead 800 Madison, a 217-unit, transit-oriented, Class A apartment community in Hoboken.

As Head of the DSF Group’s investments, Solomon is in charge of the company’s acquisition and development activities. He also evaluates and negotiates new investment opportunities and manages the business plan of each investment asset. Since the DSF Group’s inception, he has been responsible for more than $3 billion in new investments.

Prior to co–founding The DSF Group, Solomon served as a Vice President in the Partners Group of AEW Capital Management, where his group acquired commercial and multifamily properties throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic U.S.

Solomon is very active in the real estate industry and within his community. He sits on numerous boards and committees such as NAHB’s Multifamily Leadership Board, Heading Home Inc., which pioneered programs to end homelessness in Greater Boston, and the Nashoba Brooks School. Solomon is also the owner of the Hartford Yard Goats, the AA affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. He lives with his wife Nancy and four children in the Boston area.

Solomon earned a bachelor’s from Northeastern University and an MBA in real estate and urban land economics from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

JOSE CRUZ

Senior Managing Director

New Jersey Office Co-Head

JLL Capital Markets

Jose Cruz is a Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of the New Jersey office of JLL Capital Markets, Americas. He joined JLL as part of the HFF acquisition and is a member of the firm’s leadership committee. Cruz specializes in investment advisory throughout New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and oversees the day-to-day operations of the firm’s New Jersey office. During his more than 25-year commercial real estate career, he’s been involved in more than $28 billion of office, industrial, retail, multifamily and land sales.

Cruz started at HFF in March 2010. Before that, he was an Executive Director with Cushman & Wakefield’s New York area investment sales group, where he spent more than 17 years. He began his real estate career as an Analyst at PaineWebber, UBS Inc.

JEFFREY OTTEAU

Managing Broker

Hudson Atlantic Realty Advisors

Chief Economist

Otteau Group

Jeffrey G. Otteau is the Managing Broker of Hudson Atlantic Realty and is a recognized industry expert who has been actively engaged in real estate brokerage, valuation and consultation for more than four decades. Widely respected for his knowledge and insight into real estate trends, he is considered the go-to person for assessing the viability and optimization of real estate investments.

He also serves as the Chief Economist of Otteau Group, which provides valuation and advisory services to a wide range of private- and public-sector clients, which he founded in 1976. He is a Senior Accredited Member of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and holds the State Certified General Real Estate Appraiser certification in multiple states. Otteau has served on the Appraisal Standards Advisory Council of the Appraisal Foundation in Washington, D.C. in consulting on its agenda of projects and major technical issues and is a past Chairman of the Employee Relocation Council’s Appraisal Standards Council, which inducted him into its distinguished Hall of Leaders.

Otteau is consistently recognized for his industry leadership including by NJBIZ in its annual ranking of Most Influential in Real Estate for seven years, and ROI-NJ as a Top-10 Real Estate Professional for three years. He is frequently quoted in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and has made television appearances on CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox 5 News and NBC. Otteau has also been qualified as an expert in State and Federal Court and at hundreds of municipal and county proceedings, authored several texts on property analysis techniques and has lectured throughout North America on real estate trends.