Benjamin Atkins

Over his twenty-five year career in real estate, Professor Atkins has worked at the highest levels of institutional real estate as well as being a successful multi-strategy real estate investor. He has consummated the purchase and development of properties with a gross asset value in excess of $1 billion.

Professor Atkins is currently the co-founder and CEO of Zenith IOS. Zenith is a vertically integrated industrial outdoor storage (“IOS”) company which was formed in 2021 to assemble a national portfolio of institutional quality IOS assets under a branded and standardized platform. Since inception Zenith has purchased over $400 million of IOS sites across the United States, which it owns and operates in a joint venture with J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Professor Atkins is also the Founder and President of Abingdon Square Partners, a real estate development company formed in 2011 and headquartered in Brooklyn, NY. The Company seeks commercial and industrial opportunistic investment opportunities within emerging and undervalued markets, with a focus on New York, Florida and Texas. Since inception, Abingdon has transacted on properties with a net asset value in excess of $300 million.

From 2002-2011, Professor Atkins was a principal in The Atkins & Breskin Company (“A&B”), a privately held real estate investment firm based in New York City. While there, Professor Atkins built a portfolio of retained mixed- use assets which currently exceeds fifty properties.

Professor Atkins began his real estate career in 1997 as a real estate attorney at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York City. From 1999 to 2002, he was a Vice President at Vornado Realty Trust, one of the nation’s largest commercial real estate firms, and served as General Counsel of the firm’s New York Office Division. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School (1997) and a BA in political science from Columbia College (1993).

Professor Atkins is also a former two-time fencing National Champion and NCAA Champion and is a member of the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame.