NEW YORK CITY-Silverstein Properties, the developer of the World Trade Center site, has hired a new director of asset management as the family-run company plans to expand its commercial real estate offerings beyond Manhattan. Michael D. Berman, most recently senior vice president and head of asset management at Gramercy Capital Corp., will oversee SPI’s 35 million square-foot portfolio and expansion efforts into markets such as Florida, Eastern Europe, Israel and China, with a specific focus on the company’s operating model.

“Silverstein has a long history of operation here in Manhattan and has gone through some growth,” Berman tells GlobeSt.com. “A natural progression of that is to add some more structure to the organization. They have begun to develop an asset management team, and my job is really to help build and refine the asset management group and help the operating platform work as efficiently as possible.”

Previously the head of leasing for Equity Office Properties’ 7.5 million-square-foot Manhattan portfolio, including World Wide Plaza (now on the sales block), Berman has also worked in leasing at Brookfield Office Properties, Reckson Associates, LaSalle Partners and Studley Inc., which he describes as a “solid foundation” for his new position. “I’ve got a good institutional background which bodes well for an organization like Silverstein that is really at its inflection point in its development, from what has historically been Larry and the family-type of business to one that is growing and becoming more institutionalized,” he says.