By Joshua Burd
The lineup is set for next week’s Rutgers Center for Real Estate symposium on distressed property, where some two dozen industry experts will tackle the issue through the lens of a detailed case study.
The Feb. 7 event, slated for the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick, will begin with a welcome from the program’s leaders and a fireside chat with Jonathan Schultz of Onyx Equities, one of the state’s most active real estate investment firms. That gives way to a fictional case study involving a failing mixed-use redevelopment project, one that organizers will bring to life with the help of nearly two dozen professionals with decades of experience.
They include a major developer, a senior lender, top capital markets and investment sales brokers and a construction expert, as well as both creditor’s and debtor’s bankruptcy counsel, a financial adviser, a chief restructuring officer, a substitute developer and potential rescue investor. Ted Zangari of Sills Cummis & Gross PC, who will present the case and moderate the panel discussion, noted that the program will also feature subject matter experts in the audience who will field specific questions, including an appraiser, a condominium expert, a construction attorney, land use counsel, a municipal official, a municipal attorney, a public finance and incentives analyst a retail broker and an official from the state Economic Development Authority.
Click here to register.
“These panelists and audience experts will represent various roles in the fact pattern and attempt to put the failing, half-built project on a path to completion,” said Zangari, a member of Sills Cummis and member of the Center for Real Estate’s executive committee.
“This discussion could not be better timed. In each real estate recession, restructuring experts work themselves out of a job by the end of the downturn — leaving a talent vacuum when the next recession happens.
“We’re at that point now,” he added. “Many of the professionals in commercial real estate and lending today were in high school or college during the last crisis 15 years ago, so there’s knowledge void. What better venue to fill that gap than the Rutgers Center for Real Estate?”
This symposium is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. with registration and continental breakfast, with a snow date of Feb. 8. The full agenda and speaker list are as follows:
8:45 a.m. – Welcome
- Morris A. Davis, academic director and Paul V. Profeta chair of real estate, Rutgers Business School Center for Real Estate
- George Jacobs, adjunct faculty professor, Rutgers Business School Center for Real Estate; president, Jacobs Enterprises
9 a.m. – Fireside chat
- Jonathan Schultz, co-founder and managing partner, Onyx Equities
- Interviewed by Ron Ladell, executive committee chair, Rutgers Business School Center for Real Estate; adjunct faculty professor, Rutgers Business School Center for Real Estate; senior vice president, AvalonBay Communities Inc.
9:20 a.m. – Overview of the case study and introduction of the panelists and audience subject matter experts
- Facilitator: Ted Zangari, chair, real estate department, and chair, statewide redevelopment law practice group, Sills Cummis & Gross PC
9:45 a.m. – Part one: Teasing-out the issues and challenges
10:15 a.m. – Break
10:30 a.m. – Part two: Finding a path forward
Panelists:
- Redeveloper (representing the two principal investors): Joel Bergstein, executive chairman, Lincoln Equities Group
- Redeveloper’s restructuring consultant: Joshua Schainker, director, Houlihan Lokey
- Redeveloper’s bankruptcy counsel: S. Jason Teele, member, Sills Cummis & Gross PC
- Financial advisor to the 18 related investors: Jeff Sica, CEO, Circle Squared Alternative Investments
- New Jersey bank (construction lender/secured creditor): Christopher Coiley, regional president, commercial real estate, Valley National Bank
- New Jersey bank’s bankruptcy counsel: Joseph Schwartz, chair, bankruptcy group, Riker Danzig
- Prospective chief restructuring officer: Perry Mandarino, head of restructuring, B. Riley Securities
- Prospective substitute developer: Billy Procida, CEO and president, Procida Funding & Advisors
- Owner’s construction consultant/prospective substitute general contractor: Marjorie Perry, CEO and president, MZM Construction & Management
- Capital markets broker: Susan Mello, executive vice president and group head of capital markets, Walker & Dunlop
- Investment sales broker: Alan Goodkin, managing director, Ackman-Ziff
- Prospective take-out/rescue investor: Tammy Jones, CEO, Basis Investment
Audience subject matter experts:
- Appraiser/valuation Expert: Michael Hedden, managing director, Integra Realty Resources
- Condominium expert: Ed San George, president, Integra Management
- Construction counsel: Aaron Brotman, associate, Cole Schotz
- Land use counsel: Matthew Posada, member, Sills Cummis & Gross, PC
- Municipal counsel: Joseph Baumann, chairman, McManimon & Scotland
- Municipal official: Caroline Ehrlich, executive director, Woodbridge Redevelopment Agency
- Public incentives/finance consultant: Tom Banker, owner, The Banker Group
- Retail broker: Marta Villa, senior vice president-retail, CBRE
- State incentives-public official: Dan Jennings, executive vice president, real estate programs, New Jersey Economic Development Authority
