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Peter Kasabach
New Jersey Future

Kasabach leads nonprofit policy and practice organization New Jersey Future as executive director. His experience before joining the group in 2007 includes serving as chief of policy for the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, and leading planning and real estate programs at Trenton-based community development organization Isles.

As a new administration prepares to get settled in Trenton, voices like Kasabach’s are among those vying to be heard.  Over the summer, he presented New Jersey Future’s new policy roadmap to more than 500 attendees at the 2025 New Jersey Planning and Redevelopment Conference. The package includes timely and actionable recommendations. It emphasizes priorities that mirror those of New Jersey Future, according to the group, such as sustainable land use, strategic redevelopment, infrastructure investments, climate resilience, affordable housing and equitable access to opportunity. During the conference, Kasabach described the roadmap as offering “practical and cost-effective strateies to grow our economy, protect our environment and expand opportunity in every corner of our state.

“This document is a call to action,” Kasabach said at the time. “We invite every candidate—and every voter—to engage with the ideas it presents. The choices we make today will shape the future of New Jersey for generations. Let’s choose prosperity that leaves no one behind.”

Taiisa Kelly
Monarch Housing Associates

Having joined Monarch Housing Associates in 2006, Kelly was appointed CEO in 2019. Guided by the belief that housing is a right, the Cranford-based nonprofit organization works to increase the supply of affordable and supportive housing by backing partners in housing finance development, team coordination and project feasibility reviews. In addition to its housing development work, Monarch is guided by its work to end homelessness and its public policy advocacy.

With experience in housing development collaborating with federal, state and local funding sources to secure financing for special needs housing projects, Kelly has helped Monarch expand services to include strategic planning, grant writing, system oversight, project monitoring, grant administration, program development and data analysis.

She has also sought to expand and innovate the agency’s development focus. According to its website, to date, Monarch has developed more than 3,000 units of affordable and supportive housing and secured over $85 million in new projects supporting persons experiencing homelessness. A past NJBIZ Best 50 Women in Business recipient, Kelly was also inducted into the NJ Housing and Economic Development Hall of Fame in 2013.

Daniel Kennedy
NAIOP – New Jersey Chapter

Kenney leads NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association – New Jersey Chapter. As CEO, he works to position industry leaders, along with their projects and the communities they impact, for success. Additionally serving as executive director of NAIOP NJ’s Developers PAC puts Kennedy in an even better position to advocate for the organization’s more than 850 members. Kennedy took the help at NAIOP NJ in 2023, succeeding longtime leader Mike McGuinness.

His approach has helped the group achieve significant success this year. Chief among them, developing a new, comprehensive four-year Strategic Plan focused on current and future industry needs. The roadmap offers six main goals: advocacy, member value, external branding & positioning, industry perception, higher education & research, and community action.

When Kennedy assumed his position, he encouraged a study to help inform a new master plan. “We owe our members transparency on how we are running this organization, and the Four-Year Strategic Plan is going to be instrumental for achieving that,” he said.

Michael Klein, Michael Oliver and Jose Cruz
JLL Capital Markets

Klein and Oliver run JLL’s Capital Markets office in Morristown. Their coverage includes leading businesses in New Jersey, suburban New York and Connecticut, as well as providing day-to-day oversight for JLL’s New Jersey office. The commercial real estate company’s recent work includes the sale of The West in West Orange. JLL represented both the buyer and seller as well as working to secure a loan for the acquiror through a life insurance company.

Klein is a former managing director at Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP and account director at Ogilvy Public Relations. Oliver is also a veteran of HF. He joined JLL in 2019 as senior director. Cruz is a senior managing director in the JLL Morristown office. Over his nearly 30-year career, he has risen to prominence in the region. By the numbers, he’s played a part in more than 1,145 deals totaling $64 billion across office, industrial, retail multifamily and land transactions.

Earlier in 2025, Cruz and his team sold 417-unit luxury apartment tower The Morgan at Provost Square in Jersey City, the  state’s largest such sale.

Jeff Kolakowski
New Jersey Builders Association

Kolakowski brings more than two decades of experience in government relations, advocacy, policy development and public affairs to his role as CEO of New Jersey Builders Association. The leading trade association for the homebuilding industry, its membership includes residential and mixed-use builders, developers, remodelers, subcontractors, suppliers, engineers, lawyers, architects, consultants and others.

Kolakowski’s advocacy includes policy areas such as land use, redevelopment, economic development, utility infrastructure, environmental matters, and building codes and standards. At the start of the year, he offered feedback following Gov. Phil Murphy’s final State of the State address.

“New Jersey has the fastest growing population in the Northeast but suffers from a significant housing shortage that prevents even middle-income New Jerseyans from being able to afford housing,” he stated at the time. “By modernizing our zoning and permitting we can ensure we are using our limited land in a responsible manner that will enable our State to meet demand and lower costs for New Jerseyans. We look forward to working with the Administration and Legislature to modernize our inefficient and inequitable land use laws.”

Kara Kopach
Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority

Kopach is an experienced leader and executive director at the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority. She oversees the redevelopment of an approximately 1,100-acre former military installation, successfully closing 34 transactions and helping to spark development across three towns. The tally also includes the creation of more than 1,500 jobs and an over $2 billion capital investment.

She assumed the role in 2022, but Kopach joined FMERA in 2014. Beginning as senior program officer for development, she rose through the organization over a series of positions with escalating responsibilities. In her previous position, as deputy executive director, Kopach was directly responsibility for marketing, development and financial plans associated with the redevelopment mission at the former Fort Monmouth. She oversaw the Real Estate Development team, leading contract negotiations and project management of the Fort’s prospective buyers, investors and entrepreneurs.

In June, Kopach helped welcome one of the area’s newest additions. High-profile tenant Netflix held a premiere event to kickstart construction on its $1 billion 290-plus-acte campus, coming to Fort Monmouth. “The landscape of Fort Monmouth will look drastically different next year,” said Kopach to close out 2024, the Two River Times reported in January.

Robert Kossar and David Knee
JLL

JLL Vice Chairs Kossar and Knee are longtime leaders in the local commercial real estate market. In fact, their success helped lead to the creation of the JLL Northeast Industrial team they head.

The group of more than 100 covers 1.8 billion square feet of space – marking the largest region in the global real estate company’s U.S. footprint and driving billions in annual transaction volume.

This year, the duo took home the Top Industrial Deal of the Year Award from NAIOP New Jersey. Recognized for one of the largest leases in state history, the pair represented Russo Development and Forsgate Industrial partners, as owners, in securing a lease for 1.7 million square feet with TJX Cos.

At Kingsland Meadowlands logistics park. Another recent success closed in Kearny, where Kossar and Knee represented Seagis Property Group in the lease of more than 200,000 square feet to a rapidly growing e-commerce firm.

Jonathan Kushner
Kushner Real Estate Group

As president of Jersey City-based family-owned real estate investment and management company Kushner Real Estate Group, Kusher is responsible for the acquisition and development of all new projects, property management and leasing of over 9,000 rental apartment units, with an additional 7,000 in various stages of approval and construction. The company also owns and manages more than 6 million square feet of office, retail and industrial properties across New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida.

His role includes overseeing a team at KRE Group that is forging ahead with a development pipeline of over 10 million square feet of residential and mixed-use projects. Under his guidance, KRE is becoming recognized for its luxury multifamily offerings in urban areas in addition to gaining notice for its commercial properties and garden-style apartments.

KRE Group followed up a banner 2024 with more big splashes in 2025, including the lease up of the company’s signature project: Journal Squared. All three towers are leased and occupied, marking a major milestone for the decade-long project.  It also secured a $225 million refinancing for the final tower, a move that underscores the project’s strong leasing performance and investor confidence in Jersey City’s market. KRE Group also opened luxury multifamily developments in Bayonne, East Hanover and Hopewell over the past year-and-a-half.

Allison Ladd
City of Newark

As Newark’s deputy mayor and director of economic and housing development, Ladd has become the Brick City’s central force in expanding housing options and ensuring new growth benefits longtime residents. To help carry out Mayor Ras Baraka’s goal to channel private investment toward mixed-income housing, affordable homeownership and neighborhood-focused revitalization, Ladd has created new policies, programs, and financing tools to preserve and build affordable units, prevent evictions and foreclosures, and convert abandoned or underused properties into productive community assets.

As part of the mission, her office is activating both public and private vacant land to increase the supply of affordable and mixed-income housing, while also using inclusionary zoning to ensure new development contains opportunities for low- and moderate-income Newarkers. She also oversees the Equitable Growth Commission and chairs Invest Newark, where she guides initiatives that strengthen small businesses and support the city’s broader redevelopment goals.

Over the past year, Ladd continued to focus on expanding affordable housing tools and speeding up development. In July, she supported a major update to the affordable housing trust fund that now allows funding for affordable homeownership, including down-payment assistance.

Ron Ladell
AvalonBay Communities Inc.

Since 2002, Ladell has been a senior vice president and lead executive at AvalonBay Communities Inc., helming the company’s New Jersey residential and mixed-use development activity. Based in the firm’s Westfield office, Ladell has guided the creation of premier mixed-use communities across more than 30 New Jersey municipalities. AvalonBay currently owns and operates over 20 apartment communities in New Jersey, with projects in Parsippany, Roseland, Wayne and West Windsor currently under construction, as well as communities in Saddle River and Somerville in the pipeline.

After serving on the Rutgers Center for Real Estate executive committee since the center was established a decade ago, Ladell was appointed in late 2022 as chair. Over the past 10 years, the center has grown to offer eight courses, seen nearly 330 students obtain its undergraduate concentration in commercial real estate and provided about $2.3 million in scholarships.

During a recent interview with Real Estate NJ, Ladell said, “When I talk to students initially, they think ‘real estate’ is Weichert homes. They think you’re selling homes … We provide exposure to an industry and industry professionals that you can’t get without this program. We can tell students and show students – by experiences and discussions – what it’s like to be in this industry.”

Kerri Levine
Fidelco Realty Group

As principal of Millburn-based Fidelco Realty Group, Levine is helping lead Newark’s resurgence through a blend of real estate investment and community-focused revitalization. She’s also known as a dedicated philanthropist who supports numerous local initiatives focused on education, arts and social equity, and has championed causes that strengthen the city’s neighborhoods while improving access to opportunity for residents.

One of Fidelco’s most visible efforts is the transformation of 550 Broad St., the historic former First National State Bank headquarters overlooking Harriet Tubman Square. When Fidelco acquired the 18-story, 300,000-square-foot building in 2019, occupancy hovered around 50%. Since then, the company has modernized the property, attracted a diverse roster of tenants and helped spark new interest in Newark’s North End.

Notable leases include Big Brothers Big Sisters of Essex, Hudson & Union Counties, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Victoria Foundation, along with an array of tech startups, engineering firms and nonprofits. Fidelco has also welcomed New Jersey Institute of Technology to its nearby 494 Broad St. property.

Seth Levy
SOCO Construction

As of May 2025, Levy is president and CEO of Bedminster-based SOCO Construction. Previously COO and executive vice president, Levy took the helm as part of a leadership transition at the employee-owned commercial contractor. His predecessor, Matthew Lorenzo, led SOCO since the firm’s founding in 2005, and has since shifted to roles as a senior advisor and board member.

Levy began with the business two decades ago, joining Lorenzo and now executive vice president and COO Bradley Smith in growing it into a regional construction management firm. Formerly known as Sordoni Construction Co., it has completed a wide range of projects across many sectors, including multifamily, mixed-use, retail, education and manufacturing. That’s included the ongoing revamp of Monmouth Mall; Eataly’s first New Jersey location at the Mall at Short Hills; and West Side Square in Jersey City, a mixed-use development that’s slated for a phase one opening next fall.

Last month, Soco broke ground as construction manager on a second apartment building at The Park in Berkeley Heights. Along with 149 residential units, the eight-story tower will feature wellness concepts, collaboration areas, an outdoor pool, a rooftop lounge and a game area.

Dan Loughlin and Timothy Greiner
JLL

As executive managing director for JLL, Greiner leads a Parsippany-based team of more than 50 office and retail leasing brokers while also providing tenant representation and agency leasing services for his clients. A three-time NAIOP Deal of the Year winner, Greiner is behind many of the most significant real estate transactions that drive economic development in New Jersey. In the past 12 months, his portfolio of work has included Blackrock’s 178,000-square-foot deal at Argent Ventures’ 1 University Square Drive in Princeton and bringing the prestigious Day Pitney law firm to 8 Sylvan Way in Parsippany.

Greiner and his team were also tapped to lease the 350,000-square-foot redevelopment of Arena in East Hanover; the 270,000-square-foot trophy-quality Madison at 175 Park Ave. in Madison; and the 464,000-square-foot, Class A office property at 500 Plaza Drive in Secaucus.

Since 2008, Loughlin has served as JLL’s vice chairman of brokerage for the firm’s New Jersey office markets group. In that role, he provides corporate representation for both the acquisition and disposition of commercial real estate and advisory services for strategic planning and site development.

Clark Machemer
Crow Holdings Development

A senior managing director with Crow Holdings Development, Machemer leads the Texas-based privately owned real estate investment and development firm’s Northeast office. As part of that role, he oversees site selection and acquisition, team building, securing project entitlements, coordinating project design and construction, and managing project capitalization.

Over the past two years, the firm has introduced more than 3.5 million square feet of new development in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Major deals include fully leasing its 1.2 million-square-foot Carteret logistics campus through new agreements with YunExpress and BroadRange Logistics along with relocating global auto parts manufacturer GMB’S headquarters and distribution operations to a 294,000-square-foot site in Burlington.

CHD also announced MLB Network’s move to a new 207,000-square-foot facility in Elmwood Park – the former site of the Marcal Paper warehouse that burned down in early 2019. That transaction was recently lauded as NAIOP New Jersey’s 2025 Deal of the Year in the Emerging Markets category. Machemer described the agreement as “two legacy organizations coming together with an eye toward the future.”

A 25-year industry veteran, Machemer has been involved in the leasing and development of more than 19 million square feet of industrial space, 1 million square feet of office space and 250 residential units.

Jim McGuckin
Marcus & Millichap

After starting out as a sales intern in 2013, McGuckin has risen to his current role as vice president and regional manager for Marcus & Millichap. At the commercial real estate agency’s office in Saddle Brook, McGuckin oversees a team of investment sales professionals, capital markets originators and operational staff, and guides strategy, deal flow and agent development. Under his leadership, the office has strengthened its presence across the multifamily, retail, industrial and mixed-use sectors, benefiting from his focus on mentorship, performance culture and the cultivation of long-term investor relationships.

Recent deals include the sale of a 45,135-square-foot retail center in Parsippany for $18.5 million and a 53,077-square-foot retail center in Lawrenceville for $11.3 million. M&M also brokered the sale of a fully occupied 10,369-square-foot office property in Westfield for $5 million and a seven-building medical-office campus for $6.7 million.

His team also regularly participates in volunteer initiatives and local fundraising efforts, including an annual backpack-building program for the Paterson School District and ongoing support for the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Jeff Milanaik
Bridge Industrial

A partner for the Northeast Region at Bridge Industrial, Milanaik opened the firm’s local office 11 years ago in Parsippany.  Through his role, the nearly four-decade industry veteran is responsible for the acquisition and development of investment-grade industrial buildings that provide opportunities to add value. Since then, the firm has developed more than 22 million square feet of warehouse space in North Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania and Brooklyn with a combined valuation of more than $5.5 billion.

Some recent New Jersey activity includes unveiling BridgePort II, a 1.24-million-square-foot logistics park in Perth Amboy, where one of the buildings is already fully leased. The project was named a finalist in the 2025 NAIOP NJ Commercial Real Estate Awards for “Industrial Deal of the Year.” It was beat out by the 1.3 million-square-foot lease of Kingsland Meadowlands logistics park in Lyndhurst to TJX Cos. During the May 2025 ceremony, Milanaik, a former NAIOP NJ chapter resident and corporate chair of NAIOP’s national organization, was presented with the Charles Klatskin Lifetime Achievement Award.

Milanaik emphasizes the importance of relationships, saying, “There is one thing about our business that will never change, though. We are in the people business.”

Gus Milano
Hartz Mountain Industries Inc.

After joining Hartz Mountain Industries Inc. in 1981 as an analyst, Milano rose through the ranks to be named president and chief operating officer of one of the largest private owners of commercial real estate in the U.S. In addition to serving on the NAIOP National board, Milano is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Now under Milano’s leadership for the past decade, Secaucus-based Hartz continues to expand. The 59-year-old company’s portfolio of more than 260 properties totals over 45 million square feet of residential, office, hotel and industrial space across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida.

This past summer, Hartz debuted The Reserve at Estuary, a 218-unit high-end rental development within Weehawken’s Lincoln Harbor enclave. The property has already surpassed 80% leasing and achieved the record for Hartz’s fastest lease-up in history. Meanwhile, Fairways at Cranford, an office complex-turned-residential development, is more than 60% leased only months after launch.

On the industrial side, Hartz continues to shift away from office holdings toward logistics, data centers, ground-leases and infill industrial assets. That includes recent deals for logistics/warehouse space in Cranford.

David Minno
Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners

Since co-founding Minno & Wasko Architects and Planners 30 years ago, Minno has helped it become an award-winning, mid-size full-service firm serving the Northeast – and specifically New Jersey. From its offices in Lambertville and Newark, Minno & Wasko’s staff of 85 focuses on private sector, large mixed-use redevelopment, including transit-oriented developments and projects with significant residential components.

As president, Minno seeks to advance the firm’s mission of balancing thoughtful, sustainable design with a sense of timelessness. Some of its most high-profile projects include eco-focused community Birch House in Jersey City, waterfront residential development The Pearl at Station Bay in South Amboy, two phases of multifamily site Urby Harrison and signature adaptive reuse project The Parkway Lofts in Bloomfield.

Minno & Wasko continues to be active across New Jersey. The firm is handling designs of a major mixed-use residential project in Paramus that will bring hundreds of apartments to a parcel adjacent to Bergen Town Center and serving as architect for a new 216-unit residential building at 95 Challenger Road in the Overpeck Corporate Center. In Long Branch, Minno & Wasko is also leading multiple multifamily and retail redevelopment projects.

Laurent Morali, Nicole Kushner Meyer and Michael Sommer
Kushner

One of the most active firms in the state, New York-based multi-generational real estate development and management company Kushner has a multifamily portfolio that encompasses over 27,000 units across 15 states. The firm also has a pipeline of over 11,000 apartments in New Jersey and South Florida. At the helm of the company is CEO Laurent Morali, President Nicole Kushner Meyer and Chief Development Officer Michael Sommer.

Since joining Kushner in 2008, Morali has played a key role in the company’s expansion, taking on leadership positions across finance, acquisitions and capital markets before stepping into the chief executive role four years ago. As president, Meyer oversees investor relations, development, acquisitions and asset management to drive the company’s evolution while honoring its 46-year legacy. Through his job as CDO, Sommer leads all development and construction efforts across the firm’s existing and expanding portfolio.

Highlights from the past year include launching leasing and welcoming residents at The Journal, a nearly $1 billion mixed-use project in Jersey City.

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