In-Person Dinner: An Evening with Tom Shapiro, President at GTIS Partners

Tom Shapiro is the President and Founder of GTIS. In addition, Mr. Shapiro is the Chief Investment Officer responsible for overseeing all investment activity and strategy of the firm. Mr. Shapiro is also Chairman of the General Partner’s Investment Committee and is a member of the Board of Directors of Brazil Hospitality Group, one of the largest owners and managers of hotels in Brazil.

Mr. Shapiro’s experience in the real estate industry began in 1988. Prior to starting GTIS, Mr. Shapiro was a Senior Managing Director at Tishman Speyer and a member of the firm’s Investment and Management Committees. Most recently, Mr. Shapiro was responsible for Tishman Speyer’s global equity capital markets and dispositions groups. Previously, Mr. Shapiro ran GTS Properties, an acquisitions joint venture between Tishman Speyer and Goldman Sachs.

Mr. Shapiro serves on the Board of Trustees of Horace Mann School. He also serves on the Undergraduate Executive Board for The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania from which Mr. Shapiro received a B.S. and graduated magna cum laude.

Brad Cohen is a Senior Vice President at CBRE’s Midtown
office specializing in landlord and tenant advisory services
throughout New York City, with a focus on both retail and
industrial and the intersection of these two sectors. Brad joined CBRE in 2018 from Eastern Consolidated where he and his team built a successful practice that focused primarily on serving occupiers and owners in New York City’s outer boroughs. Cohen has since expanded his team throughout the region, into parts of Rockland County, Westchester County and Long Island.

With the continual interdependence between retail and industrial in recent years, and his understanding of bricks and mortar retail and supply chain demands, Brad has applied his experience within these areas into new real estate categories dubbed ‘flex-industrial’ and ‘flex-retail’. Through this intersection, Brad has identified opportunities for experiential, athletic entertainment and omni channel clients and positioned properties for new end user exposure. Transactions within these flex categories include: 233 Nevins Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn, where he was instrumental in signing The Cliffs, an indoor rock-climbing chain, Court16 Tennis Academy in Lower Manhattan, where their client, will open its first New York location and Zerospace Studios, an event and production studio opened earlier this year in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

While primarily focused on leasing activities, Brad’s team and relationships are responsible for the recent sales on behalf of its clients, including One Bulova Avenue in Queens, NY, which his team successfully leased to Amazon, the sale of 1500 Basset Avenue in the Bronx, NY to Realterm Logistics, leased to Amazon, Bradley Industrial Park, which was the largest industrial sale in Rockland County, Sunset Industrial Park built to suit (confidential client).

An industry expert, Mr. Cohen has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Commercial Observer, and other publications, and is frequently invited to speak on panels at industry events.