Welcome New Members of the Real Estate Circle: September 2018

Mark Portner joined Shorenstein in 1999.  He oversees the Eastern United States Investment Group which includes Capital Transactions, Asset Management, Leasing, and Development.  His responsibilities include overseeing the sourcing of investment opportunities and directing the underwriting, due diligence, structuring and closing of capital transactions.  In addition, he is responsible for the investment performance of assets in the East through oversight of the development and execution of asset specific strategies during the company’s ownership.  Mr. Portner is a member of the Urban Land Institute. Prior to joining Shorenstein, Mr. Portner was a vice president at Carey Winston Company in Washington, D.C. where he specialized in the disposition of distressed loans. Mr. Portner graduated from University of Richmond with a B.S., and from Columbia University with an M.B.A.

Since co-founding Pollack Shores in 2006, Steven Shores and his team have built the leading regional multifamily company and have a deep understanding of acquisitions, developments, investments and property management. Under his leadership, Pollack Shores has invested in, acquired and developed over 14,500 units representing in excess of $2 billion of total capitalization in Sun Belt cities. As CEO and President, Steven oversees all of the firm’s business activities while focusing on strategy, securing new business, negotiating partnerships and capitalizing projects. He places a strong emphasis on team development, company culture and process to ensure the firm meets the goals of its investors, clients, partners and employees. In 2015, the National Association of Home Builders awarded Pollack Shores the prestigious title of Development Firm of the Year. Prior to co-founding the firm, Steven worked for Hines Interests as the Manager of the Denver development office and head of Acquisitions for the Southwestern US. While at Hines, he completed more than $700 million in office and land developments and acquisitions, and served on the advisory committee of the $800 million Hines U.S. Office Value Added Fund.  Steven holds a MBA in Finance and Real Estate from Columbia University Business School and a Bachelor’s degree from Davidson College. He is a member of the Multifamily Bronze Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC). Steven lives in Atlanta with his three children and enjoys golf, fly fishing, skiing and cycling.

Jake Sokol is a senior director at JMC Holdings, a private real estate investment and management company in Manhattan.  He spearheads the firm’s acquisition efforts, which focuses on office, multi-family and retail assets in New York City and select markets throughout the Eastern seaboard.  Jake’s responsibilities include deal sourcing, underwriting, diligence, deal structuring, closing and dispositions.  Prior to JMC Holdings, Jake worked in acquisitions at Silverstein Properties and as a CMBS origination analyst at RBS Greenwich Capital. JMC Holdings is a value-add owner/operator of commercial real estate.  Since its inception in 2011, JMC has acquired over $500M of office, multi-family and retail (urban infill) in New York City, DC Metro, Greenwich, CT, Raleigh and Pittsburgh.   JMC acts as the managing member of each asset it buys, invests its own capital in every deal and syndicates equity investments via relationships with high net worth investors, family offices and institutional partners.  Some notable New York City projects include 99 Hudson Street, 156-168 Bleecker Street and 306 East 61st Street. A lifelong New Yorker, Jake live in Noho with his girlfriend. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2005 with a BA in journalism and received his MBA from Columbia in 2011.

Ricki Shenfeld Tishman ’18 Ricki Shenfeld Tishman is a recent graduate of Columbia Business School’s MBA program with a concentration in Real Estate Finance. She currently works at Boston Properties in its New York office as a Project Manager in the Development group. At Boston Properties she leverages her background in Acquisitions & Capital Markets at DDG, a luxury real estate developer in Manhattan with offices in San Francisco and Palm Beach. Ricki spent her summer internship at Silverstein Properties in Acquisitions & Development. During her time with Columbia Business School she served as the Real Estate Circle Fellow and as the Vice President of Site Tours in the Real Estate Association.  

Zach Shulruff ’18 Zach Shulruff recently joined the BESEN family office as an Investment Manager after graduating from the Friday/Saturday Executive MBA Program this summer. At BESEN, Zach is responsible for the US real estate investment platform, which specializes in lower middle market private equity deals. To date, they have invested in opportunistic development projects across New York City as a Co-GP or LP. Zach was brought on to grow the platform for this Melbourne-based company. Prior to BESEN, Zach worked as a Vice President at Deutsche Bank and its affiliates. He was responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and asset managing a book of balance sheet commercial real estate loans, with a focus on New York City construction projects. Before DB he spent three years at fund manager Torchlight Investors opportunistically acquiring and repositioning distressed commercial real estate properties across the United States. He worked in management consulting as his first job out of college. Zach graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.A. in Financial Economics and History.