It has not been an easy year in the net lease space but the men and women who help close these deals have persevered, bringing their A game to the table. Even as dealmaking has stagnated, new opportunities have arisen for buyers and sellers and the smart people have rushed to take advantage of them or at least guided their clients to do so. On the following pages we acknowledge the industry wherewithal that these people and companies have accumulated over time and used to maximum advantage in these uncertain conditions.
INDIVIDUALS
JOSH BISHOP Matthews Real Estate Investment Services SVP and senior director Josh Bishop leads the firm’s single-tenant net lease sector. He was the firm’s first agent to specialize in discount retailers and has developed a reputation as an expert in the category while building it into one of the most productive specialties at the brokerage. In addition to continuing to expand the single-tenant net lease sector, Bishop’s responsibilities include managing current transactions, securing deals, identifying unique opportunities for clients, mentoring young brokers and creating a collaborative working environment on a day-to-day basis. Bishop averages more than 100 closings each year, and his total sales volume is nearly $1 billion throughout his career. Throughout the past three years, Bishop has closed more than 240 deals worth more than $442 million, including 104 sales, with a sales volume of more than $202 million in 2022 alone. He is a five-time recipient of the Matthews Chairman’s award and the 2022 Top Listings Agent. He received the Matthews Legends award, which is given to agents who receive $3 million in commission, and he was named the 2022 Crexi Platinum Broker. Prior to his current role, Bishop spent several years at Colliers International, where he worked with some of the nation’s largest developers, institutions, syndicators, high-net-worth private clients and private equity companies. He contributes his expertise to thought-leadership articles and interviews and is a leader and mentor to his colleagues. Bishop previously worked as a high school math teacher in central New York before beginning his career in brokerage. During this time, he not only taught math but also served as a mentor to young students through tutoring sessions and prep courses for the New York State Regents Examination.
DENO BISTOLARIDES Throughout his career, Deno Bistolarides has placed a high value on his professional success and has worked toward his goals with determination. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Bistolarides was committed from a young age to understanding finance and the real estate industry. He began his career at Marcus & Millichap and worked his way up the corporate ladder. Together with two partners, Bistolarides started Encore Real Estate Investment Services, where he serves as a managing partner today. His responsibilities include training and overseeing a team of investment brokers, specifically in underwriting, advising and marketing a commercial real estate transaction. He says his greatest achievement has been expanding Encore. Today, the company has 40 employees across three offices in Detroit, Toledo and Minneapolis. In 2022, Encore closed more than 300 deals totaling more than $900 million in sales. He believes in the ideology that being a lifelong learner contributes to career success and emphasizes that nothing worth having comes easily. He shares that perspective with those he mentors. Setting daily call goals, identifying the most lucrative markets and understanding how to calculate cap rates and NOIs for a deal are all tasks Bistolarides teaches as a mentor. His objective for each agent is to learn the value of understanding their clients’ current portfolios and diversifying their assets. Bistolarides has been honored with the CoStar Power Broker of the Year award and Encore was named a Top Broker by Midwest Real Estate News in 2022.
DENNIS CISTERNA A 24-year commercial real estate industry veteran and thought-leader, Dennis Cisterna co-founded Sentinel Net Lease in 2019 and today he serves as its CIO. The firm focuses on middle-market opportunities with sound tenant financials and solid locations. He leads all acquisition and disposition strategies and recently navigated the turbulence of the economic environment to continue providing above-average returns for its more than 300 investors. In addition, he oversees all capital markets functions including investor relations, and raising all equity and debt required for transactions. From acquiring Sentinel’s first transaction in March 2020, Cisterna has grown the platform to nearly $300 million of assets without any institutional partners. He takes pride in minimizing risk, and building the investment firm during the pandemic allowed him to take a long-term perspective on essential assets that can weather the storm of unexpected events. He never wants to put the firm in a position to have to buy, sell or refinance in less-than-ideal conditions. As such, more than 95% of the entire Sentinel portfolio is financed through long-term fixed-rate debt, allowing the firm to avoid the pitfall of refinancing in a high-interest-rate environment. He is a highly requested speaker at industry conferences and is known for his candid opinions on the current state of the market. As a thought-leader, he challenges historical underwriting assumptions and expresses the need for comprehensive on-the-ground due diligence. With more than 13,000 followers on LinkedIn, Cisterna is a voice of stability and reason in a time of volatility and uncertainty. He also makes it a personal mission to educate students on the benefits of a career in commercial real estate, speaking as a guest lecturer at many universities including SDSU, USC, UC Irvine, USD and the University of Colorado.
BJ FELLER For more than a decade, Northmarq managing director & SVP BJ Feller has been an active participant in the net lease marketplace and has completed more than $5.5 billion of capital markets transactions during that time. Feller has a proven ability to work across geographies, asset types and client profiles. Feller was a founding partner of the Chicago office of Stan Johnson Co., which Northmarq recently acquired, and was integral to the firm’s growth trajectory prior to its acquisition. In 2020 during a challenging capital markets environment, Feller and the team completed $285 million in transactions. As a partner and member of the President’s Council, Feller played a central role in both the strategy and execution of the company’s vision. At Northmarq, Feller leads the largest team within the platform and is responsible for managing its production pipeline, brokerage professionals and industry relationships. Feller has long believed in a client-first focus rooted in value creation for real estate partners, and shares that spirit and energy with the team. Feller says recent global geopolitical events have only served to heighten and strengthen the conviction that focuses on helping others and adding value is the best and perhaps the only “protective moat” around the brokerage business. Clients may remember a great cap rate on a sale, but they are far more likely to remember when they were struggling with a problem and the team helped them find the path to the solution, Feller says. Feller is involved in multiple commercial real estate organizations including ICSC, NAIOP – Chicago Chapter, ULI, the Real Estate Investors Association and the University of Michigan Real Estate Alumni Alliance.
KEN HEDRICK Ken Hedrick and his business partner Andrew Ragsdale joined Newmark Group Inc. in 2017 to establish and lead the firm’s net lease capital markets practice group. They have closed 600 transactions totaling nearly $6 billion in sales throughout their careers. As executive managing director, Hedrick leads a team specializing in national single-tenant transactions for retail, office, industrial, medical and GSA properties. Some of Hedrick’s notable transactions include the sale of the United Nations office building in Manhattan, a GSA-FBI office building in Hawaii, an Amazon data center in Virginia, more than 100 FedEx distribution facilities and more than 75 Tractor Supply Co.-leased properties throughout the US. In 2022, he led the sale of the 1.5-million-square-foot Academy Sports + Outdoors distribution center in Katy, TX, for $190 million. The year prior he sold the Academy Sports distribution center in Tennessee for $120 million. Having been in the workforce for several recessions and economic downturns, Hedrick’s business philosophy is to focus on strengthening existing client relationships and building new ones when times are down, so when easier times come, clients trust you to help them achieve their investing goals. He believes it’s not if but when the economy is going to tighten and that it is important to plan for those times. Hedrick is a member of SIOR and ICSC and is an Oklahoma Real Estate Commission member. Active in the Tulsa community where he lives, Hedrick also coached youth sports for more than 10 years and serves on the finance committee for his local church.
SPENCER HENDERSON Spencer Henderson was B+E’s first broker hire in 2018 and since then he has leveraged his extensive understanding of the industry to become a leader within the broker team while also influencing the firm’s product and brand. As a director at the firm, Henderson specializes in retail net lease sales and 1031 exchanges. He recently sold a new Tesla service center in Ann Arbor, MI for $22.5 million. B+E represented both buyer and seller in the transaction and brought the deal to close prior to the rent commencement date. The pandemic provided Henderson with key opportunities to work closely with his clients and give well-informed guidance on how to navigate unforeseen challenges. He believes in the importance of flexibility and adaptability, which has led to more conversations with clients about space solutions that meet their evolving needs without putting too much capital at risk. The nature of the net lease space and B+E’s evolving tech allows Henderson to be confident in his interactions as he analyzes the market with real-time data. Prior to joining B+E, Henderson worked in various commercial real estate fields with firms including Sansome Pacific Properties. Before that, he worked for a direct lender performing due diligence on projected investments from seed funding to growth stage. He is a licensed real estate salesperson in California and an active ICSC member. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business and managerial economics from the University of California, Davis, where he played Division One baseball for four years.
JONATHAN W. HIPP After joining Avison Young three years ago, principal and head of the firm’s US net lease group Jonathan Hipp, a 30-year industry veteran, expanded and solidified the firm’s net lease market position. He leads a team of senior advisors across the country who specialize in retail, office and industrial net lease asset sales, sale-leasebacks, 1031 exchanges and tax-structured zero-cash flow transactions. While overseeing the net lease group, Hipp is an active broker working with his clients on both the acquisition and disposition of net lease investments. In 2020, Hipp and his team envisioned a solid year for net lease despite the pandemic and turned in a market-leading year, notably closing two structured credit tenant net-lease properties totaling more than $570 million and representing 1.4 million square feet. In addition to the typical net lease deals he’s known for, Hipp has carved out a niche in the zero cash flow space and has led his team through the successful completion of more than $1 billion in transactions since 2020. Of note, according to Real Estate Alert and CoStar, Hipp and his team completed the fourth-largest industrial deal in 2022, a 2.7-million-square-foot deal of $327 million for Amazon. Prior to joining Avison Young, Hipp founded and was president and CEO of Calkain Cos. Due to his entrepreneurial spirit, he expanded Calkain’s services to include brokerage, advisory, asset management, research and capital markets initiatives, completing transactions totaling more than $12 billion in net lease volume alone. He actively supports various organizations focused on rescuing, aiding and sheltering animals, most recently supporting the Loudoun County Humane Society.
KARLY IACONO CBRE SVP Karly Iacono is well-known in the net lease space as someone who provides professional and honest advisory services and up-to-date thought-leadership. Her widely followed video podcast series, “CRE Fast Five,” is entering its third year of production. In addition to her own content, Iacono is frequently asked to appear on industry podcasts, give keynote speeches and provide market commentary. At CBRE, Iacono leverages her national expertise in net lease sales and acquisitions, sale-leasebacks and single-tenant development. Based in the New York metro area, she is a top producer at the firm. Notable recent transactions include the $26.2 million Honda sale-leaseback portfolio in Massachusetts, a $10.9 million CVS in Bridgewater, NJ, a $10 million Subaru sale-leaseback in Bennington, VT, and a $12.5 million Tractor Supply portfolio in New Jersey and Georgia. Iacono is an active member of ICSC, CREW and the Pipeline. She is also a member of the CBRE Women’s Network, which was formed in 2000 and has more than 4,300 members from all levels of the organization. She supports and volunteers for several charitable organizations, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Oasis Women’s Shelter and other local community outreach organizations.
DAVID ITSKOVICH David Itskovich has extensive experience representing institutional or institutional-caliber property owners in their lease negotiations and working with prospective new-to-market clients deciding whether to enter the Florida leasing market. He has grown one of the largest leasing practices in Florida, where he represents clients in some of the most complex lease transactions in the region. As a partner and the team lead of the Florida real estate practice at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, Itskovich leads nearly 30 attorneys. In addition, Itskovich is an equity partner and formerly the co-chair of the firm’s real estate group, where he played a significant role in shaping its strategy. A recent notable project is 830 Brickell, which made a significant impact on the net lease real estate sector in Florida, not only setting the mark for rental rates but also helping shape the post-COVID-19 leasing market. The success of the project and several credit tenant signings at the highest rental rates seen in South Florida have put Itskovich’s expertise in the spotlight, making him a go-to legal advisor for institutional property owners. During COVID-19, Itskovich worked closely with his clients to address the challenges office owners faced in re-populating their buildings and retaining tenants in a post-pandemic world. From implementing upgraded HVAC systems to adding amenities to buildings, Itskovich worked with clients to address unprecedented issues, helping them differentiate their properties and be more resilient to Black Swan risk.
ALVIN N. MANSOUR Throughout a two-decade career, Alvin Mansour has sold more than $8 billion in commercial real estate investment properties, with a specific focus on net-leased properties. He leads the Mansour Group of Marcus & Millichap, which is one of the most active teams in the net lease industry and the firm’s top listing team. His vision for the industry has helped transform the retail and NNN commercial brokerage landscape, which is evident in the quality of net-leased properties the team brings to market and its ability to develop a market for net-leased properties in a specific locale. This has allowed the Mansour Group, through a collaborative approach to client success, to generate a new market either where one didn’t previously exist or set the market at a metropolitan area to state level. The team handles the listing and disposition of more than 200 properties at any given time. As executive managing director of investments at Marcus & Millichap’s San Diego office, Mansour is a top producer in multi-tenant, single-tenant and net-leased retail private client investment properties across the nation. In December 2021, Mansour sold a portfolio of four large distribution centers for $50 million to a private family office. More recently, he sold a Target in Los Angeles for $49 million to a private trade buyer, and earlier this year, Mansour sold an In-N-Out in Arizona for a record 2.86% CAP to a Southern California trade buyer. He is actively engaged in many philanthropic endeavors, including the Adopt-a-Refugee effort in coordination with the Knights of Columbus, focusing on helping refugees who have been negatively impacted by ISIS and turmoil in the Middle East.
ELYSSA MCMULLEN With 16 years of industry experience, Elyssa McMullen leads Prudential Private Capital’s credit tenant lease financing business and has been instrumental in growing the business through the origination of high-quality investments on behalf of investors. McMullen’s responsibilities include leading a six-person team, sourcing, underwriting and structuring new CTL investments. During the past three years, she has closed more than 40 investments valued at more than $2 billion across different property types, geographies and tenant types, including corporate, municipal and healthcare tenants. Proceeds have been used for construction-to-permanent financing as well as sale-leasebacks. Under her leadership, the firm’s CTL portfolio grew from around $3.5 billion to nearly $6 billion during the past five years. She is focused on structuring transactions to ensure noteholders are protected in the event of a downtown, and her creative structuring ideas have enabled several transactions to get across the finish line and meet the objectives of all stakeholders. She recently was promoted from SVP to managing director in recognition of her accomplishments. In addition to her role within the net lease industry, she is active in leadership roles within the organization, including training and recruiting talent, as well as in her local community, particularly in her children’s activities. McMullen is a mentor to young talent in the organization and also serves as an industry expert on net lease conference panels.
MATTHEW MOUSAVI Under co-founder and managing principal Matthew Mousavi’s leadership, SRS Real Estate Partners’ national net lease group provides investment advisory services across more than 15 offices and is recognized as one of the top three net lease investment teams in the country. Last year, the team expanded with new offices and brokers in San Diego and Hawaii and now includes 60 brokers and 30 support staff. He manages a team focusing exclusively on the sale of single-tenant and multi-tenant retail properties and manages the sale of more than $2 billion in available property in more than 40 states. Mousavi’s individual deal volume also set records last year, buoyed by an increasing demand for net lease retail property and income-producing passive real estate leased to credit tenants. One of his notable transactions was the $9.8 million sale of Marguerite Plaza, a 24,974-square-foot multi-tenant retail property that presented a rare opportunity for an investor to own a multi-tenant retail property in Mission Viejo, CA. The group aggressively marketed the asset and secured a high number of offers from both exchange and non-exchange investors. Overall, the property sold for just more than $392 per-square-foot at an aggressive cap rate despite rising interest rates. Based in Newport Beach, CA, Mousavi also helps guide the firm’s overall growth as the youngest member of its board of directors. He is a board member of the Real Estate Advisory Board at the University of California, Irvine Center for Real Estate, Paul Merage School of Business, where he received his MBA in real estate finance.
MICHAELANN MURPHY Michaelann Murphy has climbed the commercial real estate ladder from a financial analyst to manager to director to owner and has created more than $400 million in value during her 20-year career. She is a VP of development at STNL Development, which focuses on single-tenant net-lease development and was recently promoted to its ownership team as a principal, making her the first woman to hold an ownership stake in the company. Murphy oversees three teams handling every aspect of the development process for three clients and is responsible for land acquisition, site selection, negotiations, entitlements, permitting, horizontal and vertical development, and delivery of the final product to the client. She shares her knowledge through contributions to regional and trade publications and participation on conference panels. Murphy describes herself as an optimist with a global point of view and believes that commercial real estate leaders should step back and look at everything from a macro perspective. The pandemic created a period of industry turmoil and the development world was deeply affected by rising interest rates, which Murphy saw as having a domino effect on lending. She believes it is essential to keep the perspective that the tumult of this minute is not the permanent state of the market — retailers will continue to do deals, lenders will lend and consumers will shop. It is important to be flexible, she says, and keep perspective in a constantly changing environment. Murphy mentors recent female graduates and has hired the most promising to work alongside her. She is a member of ULI, ICSC and Women in Real Estate, as well as a co-founder and board member of the Tampa Bay Retail Alliance.
PATRICK NUTT SRS Real Estate Partners EVP Patrick Nutt co-leads the company’s national net lease group and serves as the firm’s South Florida market leader, spearheading recruiting and expansion efforts and elevating the firm’s brand throughout the state. Nutt joined the firm in its Fort Lauderdale office in 2019. The NNLG includes 60 investment sales professionals who managed more than 760 transactions with an aggregate value of nearly $3 billion in net lease real estate in 2022. Within the single-tenant NNN market, Nutt and his growing team sold properties ranging from sub-$1 million QSR locations up to $50 million single-tenant medical facilities and 70,000-square-foot Target locations. On the multi-tenant front, the team marketed and sold assets ranging from unanchored two- to five-tenant strip centers to larger grocery-anchored locations. A recent notable transaction is the $23.75 million portfolio sale of three ground-leased single-tenant properties located within Homestead Pavilion in Homestead, FL. The properties are under construction and have been pre-leased by Target, Raising Cane’s and Murphy Oil. Nutt represented the seller. He has more than 15 years of net-lease-focused experience, primarily representing developers and institutional clients in facilitating the purchase and sale of single- and multi-tenant net-leased assets across retail, office, industrial and medical-use properties. Throughout his career, he has personally led transactions with an aggregate value of more than $3 billion across more than 650 transactions. Prior to SRS, Nutt was a managing partner at Calkain Cos., where he oversaw the company’s private market brokerage division, collaborated on strategic planning for the company, and served as the company spokesman for public relations and industry events. Nutt is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he is now an advisory board member for the Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies.
NANCY OLSON Throughout her career spanning more than 26 years, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP partner Nancy Olson has led precedent-setting transactions that have transformed the net-lease real estate sector. She recently represented GIC on its $15 billion acquisition of STORE Capital, one of the nation’s largest net-lease REITs, and the related $2.6 billion acquisition financing. The buyout resulted in the ownership of a portfolio of 3,012 single-tenant commercial and industrial properties across the US by GIC and Oak Street and was one of the largest REIT take-private transactions last year. Olson also represented a sovereign wealth fund in a joint-venture with iStar Financial Inc. to invest in a portfolio of single-tenant, triple-net-lease properties with a total capitalization of $1 billion to $1.2 billion, with an equity capitalization of $400 million to $500 million. Her net lease sector experience also includes representation of Brookdale Senior Living Inc. in a multipart transaction with Healthpeak Properties Inc., as well as a restructure of 43 triple-net leased communities with Brookdale acquiring 18 triple-net leased communities from Healthpeak for $405 million. Olson leads the firm’s Chicago Real Estate Group and is a member of Skadden’s attorney development and partner selection committees. She spends time developing real estate attorneys while overseeing education opportunities and training as well as mentoring associates through challenges. Olson has been selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for the past 10 years, and she has been repeatedly named one of Crain’s Chicago Business’ Notable Gen X Leaders in Law, including in 2022.
JOEL S. OWENS As both an investor and a broker in the net lease space, NNN Invest principal Joel Owens brings a unique and realistic perspective to his work. One of his primary areas of focus is as a buyer broker for high-net-worth individuals looking to buy well-located single-tenant net lease and multi-tenant net lease properties that provide secure, monthly cash flow from credit tenants. He uses a “dirt first” approach when selecting properties and focuses on the long-term reusability of the space for future tenants. His second area of focus is his value-add syndication, through which he buys vacant or soon-to-be-vacant retail properties across the US with a 2X equity multiple target upon lease-up. As an individual principal broker, Owens closed about $65 million in 2022 in STNL and MTNL deals as a buyer broker/consultant. He is a moderator and regular contributor on the Bigger Pockets forum where he offers advice and guidance to new and seasoned investors in the net lease space. He also has been featured on numerous podcasts discussing NNN investing, helping to sort out good and bad information for people new to the space. About the sector, Owens says owning an NNN property is easy, but finding a good one is hard.
DAVID PIASECKI David Piasecki has transacted more than $5 billion of acquisitions, dispositions and financings during his more than 30 years in the single-tenant net lease business. He serves as managing director of Blue Vista Capital Management and leads its net lease capital platform. He has established a unique single-tenant net-lease strategy at the firm and is working to scale it from the nearly $100 million in total deal volume since he launched the strategy in 2021. He is responsible for all deal origination activities and is involved throughout the underwriting and deal-closing process. Prior to joining BV, Piasecki co-founded Mesirow Realty Sale-Leaseback and was a participant in Highland Equity Group in Atlanta, which became Argonne Capital Group, a firm that acquired restaurant chains using sale-leaseback financing as a primary financing method. Most recently, Piasecki was COO and later CIO for ElmTree Funds, a real estate private equity firm based in St. Louis. Piasecki has invested through several interest rate cycles and has used this experience to better guide the BV net lease platform through the turbulence of recent interest rate hikes. Specifically, he cautioned not to overpay for deals in the early days of the interest rate cycles, as sellers and brokers had not yet adjusted their pricing expectations to account for new market realities. His advice is to plan for the worst-case scenario and to expect the unexpected. This has translated to strict underwriting standards and deal processes to help protect investors and ensure deal executions. Piasecki has spoken at numerous industry and investment conferences and is an active member of his community in St. Louis, serving on the advisory board of an inner-city school that prepares disadvantaged youth to enter high-level college prep schools in the area.
GEORGE A. PINO George Pino is the co-founder and CEO of Commercial Brokers International, a full-service commercial brokerage based in Los Angeles. He managed more than 60 singlet-tenant net-lease deals during the past three years and has been named a CoStar Power Broker. After graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in marketing, Pino joined real estate auction company Kennedy-Wilson Inc., where he worked with developers and sellers while tracking closings of auction sales and eventually rose to become the manager of the closing department. Since then, he has been responsible for the sale of or directly involved in the marketing and sale of more than 6,000 assets, resulting in closed transactions totaling more than a billion dollars throughout the US. In 2002, Pino started Learning Links Centers LLC, a socially responsible real estate investment company geared toward investing in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods in larger metropolitan areas and highlighting educational opportunities for residents. The firm’s first acquisition was a 29-unit building located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Baldwin Village, an area known for both its high density and high crime rate. To date, Learning Links Centers has acquired seven buildings, for a total of 467 units, with a market value of more than $10 million. Pino also joined DBL Realtors to establish its commercial division. After the acquisition of DBL by Sotheby’s International Realty, Pino noticed a need for a customer-focused boutique commercial company and co-founded Commercial Brokers International with Joseph Killinger. He also co-founded mentorwire.org, a 501(c)3 that mentors women from lower-income areas who want to work in real estate.
ANDREW RAGSDALE Newmark Group Inc. senior managing director Andrew Ragsdale specializes in the national sale, purchase and recapitalization of net-leased office, industrial and retail properties. He has a career volume of $6 billion and has become an essential member of Newmark’s net lease capital markets group since it was established in 2017. The team has handled more than 100 FedEx distribution facilities and nearly as many leased properties for Tractor Supply Co.. Ragsdale and his team represent the national interests of clients in primary, secondary and tertiary markets, including those who are buying, selling or developing net-leased properties. This includes net lease disposition and acquisition advisory, 1031 exchange transactions, sale-leasebacks, portfolio analysis and optimization, financial analysis, market and demographic evaluation, build-to-suit forward sales, capital markets construction and financial solutions such as credit tenant lease financing. In addition to the Tractor Supply Co. leases, the team marketed and sold a portfolio of 21 Hawaiian C-Store locations for $109.4 million in 2020 and 2021, under his leadership. Ragsdale’s career has brought him face-to-face with a recession, a pandemic and economic downturn. He uses these times to monitor the situation, delve into in-depth market research and provide clients with the information they need to make informed investing decisions. In his experience, there is some segment of the market that has positive movement in every downturn. The key is being one of the first to realize which segment it will be. Ragsdale is an active member of the Little Light House, a Tulsa-based organization that aims to enhance the quality of life for children with special needs, their families and communities. He has served on the board of directors since 2016.
LIOR REGENSTREIF Since joining Marcus & Millichap, Lior Regenstreif has specialized in the acquisition and disposition of single-tenant net-leased retail assets while establishing himself as one of the firm’s top 10 producers. As senior managing director of investments, Regenstreif also serves as senior director of the firm’s national retail division and a member of the firm’s net lease division. In addition, he created the NNNDeal.com website. Regenstreif and his team have closed more than $3.39 billion in single-tenant transactions. He advises institutions, private equity firms, REITs, developers, individual passive investors and corporate users in all facets of single-tenant net-leased properties. Regenstreif maintains a boutique approach to his practice, focusing on industries of specialization that contribute to a greater-than-average success rate in closings while also making the market on cap rate compression. His focus on building relationships earned him a 90% retention with his developers. The pandemic has tested Regenstreif and his team’s resiliency and ability to adapt. However, through his leadership and understanding, the team has continued to provide its clients with investment opportunities and support. “We have always preached a preparedness to the uncertainty of the market, constantly searching for stable, revenue-driven opportunities for our clients that would be able to survive and thrive regardless of the state of the market,” he says. “The pandemic and its lengthy effects were a great opportunity for us to put these skills to the test.”
WILLIAM C. SELIGMAN McGuireWoods LLP’s William Seligman has spent more than 30 years in commercial real estate in Los Angeles and New York, representing tenants, landlords, owners and lenders. Currently based in the firm’s Los Angeles-Century City office, Seligman is a partner in its real estate and land use department, and he maintains a practice that is finance-oriented. He has extensive experience representing senior and mezzanine lenders and institutional investors in financing transactions involving all major asset classes. His work includes transactions based on net leases of university, healthcare and other institutional facilities that support tax-advantaged financing, as well as more traditional retail, industrial and office properties. In early 2021, Seligman co-led a team that represented a leading retail chain in a $625 million sale-leaseback transaction involving properties in four states in the northwestern US. The structure included a variety of 1031 exchanges, ground lease structures and a set of put/call rights that could see the transaction remain in place for as long as 80 years. At the time, it was considered the largest retail transaction since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Also in 2021, a McGuireWoods land use client turned to Seligman and a group of McGuireWoods attorneys for its more than $300 million acquisition and financing of a data center property in Virginia with a mix of private and governmental leases. In 2023, Seligman represented a leading US bank subsidiary in financing a 99-property net lease portfolio with locations in six states. Seligman’s primary responsibility is training the next generation of McGuireWoods real estate lawyers. Teaching his colleagues to view a transaction from the perspective of all parties and how to construct creative ways to reconcile seemingly contradicting needs are among his greatest sources of professional satisfaction.
ALEX SHARRIN Ten years ago, JLL Capital Markets did not have a dedicated focus on the single-tenant net lease space. Alex Sharrin changed that. He advocated for the opportunity to carve out a single-tenant net lease platform by demonstrating the demand for and potential profitability of single-tenant net-lease real estate, as well as how it was distinctly different from other asset types. Today, as senior managing director, Sharrin is also a top producer in JLL’s net lease practice group, where he focuses on investment sale advisory for owners of single- and multi-tenant net lease real estate across all markets and product types. Clients include developers, public/private funds, corporate occupiers, high-net-worth individuals, trusts, REITs, 1031 exchange investors, foreign capital sources and family offices. Sharrin has mentored and grown many young professionals into competent advisors and has elevated JLL’s presence in private capital. He has helped formulate strategies for JLL to transact in greater volumes with private capital and has been highly influential in building a multimarket net lease team. His ability to pivot away from assets highly affected by macro events and into more favorable assets is one of his defining characteristics. With the single-tenant space, there are a variety of property types, and during the past six months, he has successfully found fits for private capital clients. Sharrin has ensured his team is versatile enough so that when the market environment changes, the team keeps deal volume up and clients continue to maximize profits. He is part of ICSC and the University of Texas Real Estate Alumni Network.
RICHARD I. SIMONS Richard Simons has distinguished himself in the net lease real estate field due to his pragmatic problem-solving skills and his effective communication style, which allows him to provide concise advice on complex leasing matters and create reasonable business-minded resolutions on legal issues. Simons is a member in Moore & Van Allen’s commercial real estate group, where he has built a full-service practice representing owners and operators in all asset classes. Since joining MVA in 2015, he has emerged as a leader in the firm’s commercial real estate group and has built a reputation throughout the Southeast for providing comprehensive and integrated real estate counsel. His practice involves representing landlords and tenants in large-scale office, retail and industrial lease negotiations and related matters. For example, he negotiated a one-million-square-foot industrial warehouse NNN lease to Twin-Star in South Carolina. He also regularly negotiates commercial real property purchase and sale agreements and membership interest purchase agreements on behalf of buyers and has advised on acquisitions and dispositions valued at more than $933 million since 2020. Simons represents borrowers in connection with acquisition and construction financing, the negotiation of joint-venture agreements and the negotiation of covenants, conditions and restrictions governing developments. During the pandemic, Simons worked diligently to find ways to be dynamic and responsive to his clients’ needs. He collaborated on ways to pivot, including coordinating with MVA’s environmental team regarding zoning issues for properties shifting classes to help ensure the continuity of their business. He helped establish the Charlotte Legal Initiative to Mobilize Businesses, a program across law firms in the Charlotte area that engages volunteer attorneys to provide legal counsel on non-litigation business law matters to low-income business owners in historically under-resourced local communities.
CHRISTOPHER TWIST Colliers SVP Christopher Twist is known for delivering high prices and low cap rates for his clients, including a record 2.3 cap rate for a 7-Eleven. Described as a shrewd negotiator, Twist leverages this strategy of setting the market to help his clients build and sustain success. He specializes in the advisory and brokerage of single-tenant retail transactions across the US. During his 20-year career, he has assisted clients with the acquisition, disposition and financing of various asset classes, including multi-property, multi-tenant, industrial and single-tenant net-leased properties adding up to more than $2 billion in commercial real estate transactions. Twist structures his clients’ portfolios to withstand any economic downturn or market shock by consistently adhering to basic commercial real estate concepts. Black Swan events notwithstanding, single-tenant net-leased assets can be high-risk assets. He always considers what the value of a property is if a tenant vacates the building, and that basic understanding helps him build resilience into every transaction. He joined Colliers in 2020 and now regularly ranks as a top 10 broker for the firm in South Florida. He also is a Colliers Everest award winner. Twist gives back to local organizations such as the Council for Educational Change, which works to improve student academic performance, as well as Friends of The Underline, an organization working to transform the under-utilized land beneath Miami’s Metrorail into a 120-acre linear park, urban trail and public art destination. He also supports youth-focused organizations such as the Wayne Barton Study Center, a nonprofit that provides educational support and personal empowerment to students in a historically Black community.
TEAMS
CBRE’S PAT WADE AND ALEX KOZAKOV The CBRE duo of SVPs Pat Wade and Alex Kozakov has listed and sold more than $2.2 billion of retail investment properties across more than 300 transactions. They started working together in 2006 and joined CBRE in 2013, where they co-lead an investment property sales team in Southern California. Focused on net lease retail for more than 20 years, they have built a deep understanding of the market, investor needs and debt/equity-seeking net lease investments. They represent clients in acquiring and disposing of retail investment properties throughout the US, including strip centers, anchored shopping centers, single-tenant net-leased assets and urban redevelopment sites with a focus on the middle-market price range of $50 million and below. To complement their investment practice, Wade and Kozakov have invested time and resources into creating a systematic approach to marketing their clients’ assets. During the pandemic, the team identified a shift in consumer behavior with food and service businesses switching to more drive-through and pick-up business models and advised clients to seek tenants for their assets that were adapting to this shift. In the past three years, they have closed 77 transactions totaling more than $555 million in total consideration. Notable deals this past year included a sale of a more than $73 million retail-anchored power center in Southern California that involved multiple sellers and buyers, along with a loan assumption. Before joining CBRE, Wade and Kozakov were at Marcus & Millichap for nine years where they were consistently among the firm’s top retail investment brokers nationwide. Wade and Kozakov are regularly quoted in real estate periodicals and news publications.
NET LEASE ADVISORY GROUP OF MARCUS & MILLICHAP Mark Ruble and Chris Lind lead a net lease advisory group at Marcus & Millichap and are top-producing agents at the firm. Ruble, executive managing director of investments, has been with Marcus & Millichap’s Phoenix office for 17 years, and Lind, senior managing director of investments, has been with the firm for 16 years. Together, they have sold more than 1,840 properties totaling more than $5.7 billion in transaction volume across 46 states. Ruble and Lind are dedicated to providing clients with market-leading information and advisory services and assisting them in navigating the commercial real estate market. During the pandemic, they quickly adapted to working efficiently from home using various modes of communication to ensure that client’s needs were met in a timely and effective manner. This included coordinating with their team, Marcus & Millichap staff, title agencies and financing agencies. Ruble and Lind grew their business by nearly $100 million in sales transactions during that time. Although single-tenant, net-leased assets generally performed well throughout the pandemic with the exception of gyms and sit-down restaurants, the pandemic taught the team to focus on ensuring every investor understands their lease and exposure in the event of a similar situation in the future, especially since COVID-19 clauses have been added to many newer leases. Ruble was recognized as a top 10 agent company-wide in 2018 and 2020 and both have been named to its Chairman’s Circle of Excellence multiple times. While their primary focus is their clients, they also mentor younger, tenured agents focusing on net lease properties. Throughout the years, they have mentored more than 15 agents. Ruble and Lind both are active in their communities supporting youth activities and organizations.
UPLAND REAL ESTATE GROUP’S NET LEASE SALES TEAM With more than 25 years of experience specializing in net lease investment sales and more than 70 combined years of sales experience, Upland Real Estate Group Inc.’s net lease team has sold more than 900 investment properties valued at more than $2.8 billion. Founded in 1995, the team includes principal and CEO Keith Sturm, director of net lease sales Deborah Vannelli and investment sales associate Amanda Leathers. The team has a broad range of clients, including developers, REITs, 1031 exchange buyers, family trusts and tenants, and it specializes in net lease sales investments on a national scale, representing buyers, sellers and tenants on the sale or purchase of single- and multi-tenant net leased investment properties. Throughout the past three years, the team has had more than 90 successful transactions valued at $299 million. The team has consistently been recognized as a CoStar Power Broker Top Sales Firm in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Its significant transactions include Frontier Crossing in Prosper, TX, Sherwin Williams in Rochester, MN, and Floor & Decor in Maple Grove, MN. Sturm has served on many boards and committees during the years, including as president of the Minnesota/Dakotas Chapter of CCIM, former president of the St. Cloud State Real Estate Alumni Association, and current member of the St. Cloud State Foundation’s real estate committee. He currently is serving as an officer of the Retail Brokers Network. Vannelli earned a spot in The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list and has served as president of Minnesota CREW. Leathers is actively involved with several real estate associations, including ICSC, the Minnesota Commercial Association of Realtors and the St. Cloud State University Real Estate Alumni Association.
ORGANIZATIONS
ARCTRUST Founded in 1985, ARCTRUST has a long history of success in all areas of net lease properties, and with nearly $1 billion in assets under management, the firm is a leader in the space. Led by CEO Gary Baumann, ARCTRUST uses its acquisition and joint-venture equity program to focus on single-tenant net leases and work with tenants — including CVS, Wawa, Starbucks and Walgreens — and joint-venture development partners to increase their platforms across the New York-to-Florida corridor. During the past several years, ARCTRUST has completed acquisitions and developments for two private REITS, several DST syndications, private syndications and an opportunity zone project in the Washington D.C. area. The company is in the process of completing more than $300 million of new development transactions that started within the past two years and will be completed within the next 12-18 months. ARCTRUST has also been a major player in sale-leaseback transactions during the past decade, with nearly $500 million in sale-leaseback acquisitions or dispositions. The firm prepares for Black Swan events by reviewing its portfolio and interacting with its tenant base frequently to adjust lease terms, stagger loan maturities, and find interest rate hedges to protect itself and its tenants. It maintains an investment strategy focused on high-quality locations with good future value to protect itself in down markets. To engage with its employees, ARCTRUST created a leadership program called Emerging Leaders for select employees to focus on training and improving leadership and management skills. It also takes part in several charitable engagements including food drives, toy drives, sponsorships and donations.
BERKELEY CAPITAL ADVISORS By focusing on core principles of diversity, transparency and collaboration, Berkeley Capital Advisors believes it can not only enhance creativity and innovation among its team of more than 20 net lease professionals but also improve the company’s ability to solve problems and understand the point of view of its diverse client base. The firm embraces the diverse backgrounds of every person on its team and is proud to have multiple bilingual members fluent in Mandarin, Russian, and Spanish. Led by partners Gary Chou, Calvin Short, Aron Cline, Ransome Foose, Rob Carter and Steve Horvath, BCA has become one of the most active NNN brokerage companies in the country and continues to push the envelope on broadening NNN’s appeal as an investment class to a larger group of investors. The firm has earned the trust of some of the country’s top institutions, corporations, private equity firms, developers and high-net-worth real estate professionals. Since it was founded in 1997, the firm has brokered more than 3,900 transactions totaling more than $19 billion. In the past four years, BCA has closed more than 1,600 transactions totaling more than $4.5 billion, including the largest sale-leaseback within the auto collision sector and several large portfolios with a combined value totaling more than $560 million. BCA describes its planning perspective as both aggressive and conservative, an approach that proved successful during the pandemic. It has been conservative in spending and fixed costs, which helped it weather the initial shock of the pandemic while remaining in a good position to continue to grow and service clients. The company prioritizes mentorship and coaching young professionals, and it has trained multiple Rookie of the Year award winners, some of whom continue to work with Berkeley and others who have moved on to leadership positions of their own.
HANLEY INVESTMENT GROUP REAL ESTATE ADVISORS During the past 36 months and despite the challenges of the pandemic and subsequent economic turbulence, Southern California-based Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors has arranged the sale of 394 single-tenant net lease retail transactions valued at more than $1.5 billion. In addition to achieving record sales volume and number of transactions, the company also added three new agents and expanded the company’s presence with the addition of a Texas retail investment specialist. Founded in 2004, the firm is led by president Ed Hanley and EVPs Jeff Lefko, Bill Asher and Dylan Mallory. The firm has significantly impacted various net lease sectors, including quick-service restaurant drive-throughs, convenience stores, grocery, banks, auto service, express car wash properties and daycare/learning centers. It has built a reputation for turning net lease car washes into a viable investment product type and unlocking millions of dollars in value for car wash operators, including many of the largest operators in the US. In the past three years, Hanley has sold 68 express car washes, 49 auto repair and parts stores, 36 Starbucks, 30 7-Elevens and 23 childcare/learning centers. Hanley also works with developers to pre-sell net-leased properties before the tenant is open for business. For example, the firm generated multiple competitive and qualified offers and negotiated a quick 14-day due diligence period with a Southern California-based all-cash 1031-exchange buyer and closed escrow before the tenant, Taco Bell, opened for business in Corona, CA. Hanley achieved premium pricing for the sale that was more reflective of a Taco Bell investment leased by corporate rather than a franchisee. Every November, Hanley Investment Group’s men grow a mustache for the month to raise awareness and funds for Movember for the prevention of prostate and testicular cancers, mental health and suicide prevention.
NNN PRO GROUP Previously part of Marcus & Millichap, NNN Pro Group separated from the firm after 20 years in January 2023 to pursue its own strategic business opportunities as an independent group. Founded by CEO Glen Kunofsky in 2000, NNN Pro Group has focused on net lease investment sales and advisory solutions for clients nationwide and has established itself as a top net-lease team with more than $30 billion of transaction sales volume, including $5.6 billion last year alone. This included more than $1.5 billion in car wash sales and $1 billion in quick-service and casual dining restaurant sales, which set records at NNN Pro Group. In addition to car washes and restaurants, the team was responsible for closing more than $3 billion across key sectors such as industrial, automotive, pharmacy, medical office, education, convenience stores and specialty use assets. The firm has worked to bring NNN investing to the forefront of the industry by promoting greater awareness of the product and investment strategy for both institutional and private investors. NNN Pro Group has a long track record of working with some of the nation’s largest institutional real estate companies including publicly traded REITs and private equity funds, as well as high-net-worth individuals, family offices and developers. Today, NNN Pro Group is a full-service real estate investment firm providing a variety of services to clients across the US, including sale-leaseback programs for private equity firms and large franchisees; structured dispositions for public and private REITs and developers; investment sales and advisory services; and portfolio management for high-net-worth individuals. The firm has nearly 100 employees and a presence in seven cities across the country.
NORTHMARQ Northmarq gained a legacy focus on the single-tenant net lease sector in 2022 when it acquired Stan Johnson Co., which has focused on net lease since its inception. Led by CEO Jeffrey Weidell, Northmarq’s expertise includes single-asset and portfolio sales, as well as sale-leaseback transactions, 1031 exchanges and zero cash flow transactions that span all types of commercial assets including retail, office, industrial, healthcare and specialty properties. Northmarq has closed more than 7,700 net lease transactions totaling more than $49 billion in sales activity all time, and in the past three years, it has closed more than $11.3 billion in net lease transactions. Recent net lease closings include a Whole Foods in Chicago that sold to a family office for $18 million, Vibra Rehabilitation Hospital that sold to a group of private investors for $69 million, eight industrial equipment rental facilities sold individually each to private exchange buyers for a total of $36.2 million, and a newly constructed DaVita Dialysis clinic in Santa Maria, CA, that was listed and sold with a record cap rate for all DaVita sales. During the pandemic, Northmarq moved closer to clients and provided key data and advice to aid them in making investment decisions while encountering unprecedented market conditions. To stay ahead of major changes in the market and other Black Swan events, the firm intentionally invests in tracking, aggregating and providing market intelligence to brokers and clients with a forward-looking outlook. This market data aids in identifying headwinds and in taking advantage of future tailwinds. Northmarq is committed to giving back to its communities through its Northmarq Neighbors program. It supports organizations throughout the nation that provide affordable housing and work to reduce homelessness, such as a Safe Haven Foundation in Chicago, Friends of Boston’s Homeless and New Hope Housing in Houston.
W. P. CAREY In April, W.P. Carey celebrated its 50th anniversary. The firm ranks among the largest net lease REITs with an enterprise value of $24 billion and a portfolio of 1,449 net lease properties covering about 176 million square feet and 84 self-storage operating properties. The firm was founded in 1973 by Wm. Polk Carey, who pioneered the pooling of real estate assets into funds that allowed individuals to invest in the net lease sector and began using sale-leaseback proceeds as part of the capital stack for leveraged buyouts. In 1998, W. P. Carey completed its first sale-leaseback investment in Europe and opened its London office in 1999, establishing its foothold in Europe and paving the way for increasing net lease investment activity in Europe. It converted to REIT status in 2012. The firm’s diversified investment strategy has enabled it to mitigate long-term risk and increase stability, allowing it to continue delivering dependable long-term value to its shareholders throughout various market and economic cycles including the pandemic, during which W. P. Carey maintained consistently high rents. In 2022, despite market challenges including higher interest rates and investment cap rates that were slow to adjust, W. P. Carey executed more than $1 billion in investments for the second consecutive year, in addition to completing its $2.2 billion merger with CPA :18. Recently, W. P. Carey announced a $468 million sale-leaseback with Apotex, a global pharmaceutical company. Today, the firm is led by CEO Jason Fox and remains focused on investing primarily in single-tenant, industrial, warehouse and retail properties.
