Dinner with Arel Capital, Onyx Equities, Madison Capital & Phoenix Realty Group: Finding Success in Real Estate Investment and Development

Jonathan Schultz is Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Onyx Equities, LLC with John Saraceno, Jr. Since its founding in 2004, Onyx has become one of the most diversified and active real estate investment, management, development, and property service organizations in the New York Metro market.

Jonathan leads the investor capital raising initiatives for Onyx, along with the fund-raising efforts for the Phalanx Funds. He also oversees the strategic planning, real estate technology development, and overall investment strategy for Onyx. His passions for both real estate and CRE technology investing have translated into a creative and innovative vision that has made Onyx unique among real estate developers and transformed nearly every aspect of the company’s operations.

Keith B. Rosenthal is the co-founder and president of Phoenix Realty Group. At PRG, Keith oversees strategic planning, business development opportunities, and daily operations, and also serves on the Investment Committee. Keith has been an adjunct professor at the Real Estate Institute of New York University, a board member of the Affordable Housing Tax Credit Coalition, the National Housing and Rehabilitation Association and Rainbow Housing Assistance Corporation. Keith is a Certified Public Accountant in New York State and graduated with highest honors, earning a business degree with dual concentrations in Finance and Accounting, from Northeastern University.

PRG is a national real estate owner, operator and fund manager headquartered in New York City that provides capital and expertise for the development and operation of rental and for-sale residential properties, low-income tax-credit housing, and mixed-use and commercial projects in urban areas across the United States. PRG specializes in value-add investment opportunities in strong markets, implementing capital improvement programs to properties with the goal of upgrading apartments and amenities to ultimately improve ROI. The firm currently manages $1.7 billion in assets and more than 11,000 apartment units across the nation and continues to actively invest in multifamily properties in states on the East Coast, West Coast and Colorado.

Mr. Leibovitch is the co-founder of Arel Capital and is responsible for the firm’s investment activities. He is an investment professional with 30 years of experience, managing risk and identifying investment opportunities across a wide array of asset classes. Mr. Leibovitch, through his holding companies, owns a significant residential portfolio, which he has acquired, renovated and upgraded over the past 20 years.

From 2003 to 2012, Mr. Leibovitch served as the Chief Investment Officer, a member of its Executive Committee and board member of Gottex Fund Management, a publicly-traded fund of hedge fund firm with over $7 billion in assets under management.

From 1998 to 2003, Mr. Leibovitch was the Global Head of Trading and Derivatives for Putnam Investments. He was a member of their Executive and Management Committees.

From 1985 to 1998, Mr. Leibovitch was a senior executive at JP Morgan, where he held a number of senior trading positions including Head of Derivatives Trading, Head of Mortgage-Backed Securities Trading and Co-Head of Equity Derivatives. Mr. Leibovitch received a B.A. (Hons.) from McGill University and an M.Phil from Cambridge University.

Richard Wagman is a Managing Partner and Founder of Madison where he sits on the Investment Committee and Management Committee. He is responsible for overseeing all functions within Madison with a particular emphasis on the transaction sourcing, acquisitions and capital markets activities for all commercial properties in the U.S. He is also responsible for identifying and securing institutional joint venture partners for Madison. Richard has overseen the acquisition of in excess of $2 billion of retail, residential and office properties in New York City and along the east coast of the United States.

In 1994 he found Principal Property Group LLC, a New York real estate investment company (“Principal”) that acquired close to 1 million square feet of commercial and industrial properties in the U.S. and Canada and sold the majority of the assets to a publicly traded REIT. Prior to Principal, Richard was an acquisition associate with Lend Lease International involved in advising public and private pension funds in real estate investments in the US and Europe. Richard worked in the New York, London and Paris offices for Lend Lease.

Richard is from Montreal, Canada and resides in Manhattan. He is actively involved in the Steering Committee for the Real Estate Division of UJA, is a board member of SparkYouth NYC, a non-profit supporting youth organizations in NY and is a member of the Urban Land Institute’s Urban Mixed-Use Development Council. Richard graduated from the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce of the University of Pennsylvania with a dual concentration in Real Estate and Finance.

Ari Davis is a Partner in Tannenbaum Helpern's Real Estate and Construction Law practice. He concentrates in enabling commercial real estate transactions, including sales and acquisitions, joint ventures, leasing and financing. Ari has counseled a diverse set of clients,from family-owned businesses and single member limited liability companies to Fortune 500 companies. He negotiates retail and
office leases and subleases on behalf of landlords and tenants for spaces ranging from small offices to entire industrial buildings. Ari frequently works with developer clients that sell and purchase multifamily developments, shopping centers and office buildings throughout the U.S., and he represents lenders and borrowers in various loan structures.

Some of Ari’s work has included the following:
Representing a developer that acquired a controlling interest in a joint venture with a church, which was formed to acquire and develop the church property and multifamily units above it
Representing a car dealership client on a construction loan that it obtained from its national franchisor

Prior to joining the firm, Ari was an associate in the Real Estate, Development and Land Use Group of Chiesa, Shahinian and Giantomasi
PC (formerly known as Wolff & Samson PC), one of the largest and most respected New Jersey law firms.

Outside of work, Ari enjoys spending quality time with his family and is an ever-suffering Cleveland sports fan.

Dan OBrien is a Vice Chairman and Co-Head of Newmark’s Private Capital group.

Dan OBrien recently joined Newmark after a 4+ year stint as Executive Managing Director at Cushman & Wakefield where he oversaw the Brooklyn and Queens market. Over the last two years at Cushman & Wakefield, Dan’s team transacted on $2+ billion of real estate. Notable recent transactions that Dan has led this year include the $160 million sale of St. Francis College, the largest sale in Brooklyn to date this year; along with the $70 million note sale of the Whale Square office building in Sunset Park, and the $29.5 million sale of 125 Third Street development site in Gowanus. In 2022 Dan led the $249 million sale of the LeFrak South Brooklyn Portfolio and the $157 million sale of The Dime Residences in Williamsburg.

Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield in 2019, he spent eight years at Eastdil Secured, most recently as a Director. Dan was co-head of the East Coast Hospitality practice and functioned as a senior member of Eastdil’s NYC Multifamily team. During his tenure, he was involved in more than $25 billion of transactions including the sale of the Waldorf Astoria and The London NYC Hotels, as well as the Walt Disney Headquarters building in NYC. Prior to Eastdil, Dan worked at the LeFrak Organization and at Marcus & Millichap, where he served as part of the team that opened the firm’s first Brooklyn office.

Dan is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School and the University of Pennsylvania, and also holds an MBA degree from The Wharton School. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two daughters.

David J. Rosenberg joined Rosenberg & Estis, P.C. in 2023 and is Counsel with the firm’s Transactions Department. His practice focuses on New York City zoning, land use, and government relations. He regularly advises developers, institutions, and multigenerational property owners on a wide range of zoning and land use issues, including transfers of development rights, rezonings, special permits, variances, environmental review, site selection, massing and use studies, and compliance issues.

In addition to his advisory and transactional work, Rosenberg manages a full range of discretionary land use applications before the City’s land use agencies, including the City Planning Commission and Board of Standards and Appeals.

Rosenberg also leverages his network of relationships in and around New York government and politics to properly advise clients of the latest trends in New York City land use policy, as well as develop effective outreach strategies for their projects.

At Rosenberg & Estis, Rosenberg works with the firm’s litigation and administrative law departments to provide additional subject matter expertise in disputes involving complex land use issues.

Prior to joining Rosenberg & Estis, Rosenberg was an Associate with Phillips Nizer LLP. Before that, Rosenberg started his career at one of the city’s premier zoning and land use boutiques.

Jordan J. Metzger is a member of the firm’s Real Estate, Real Estate Special Opportunities, Corporate and Restaurant & Hospitality practice groups.

Jordan’s practice focuses on structuring, negotiating and closing the acquisition, joint venture, financing, leasing and disposition of the full range of commercial real estate assets, including distressed debt and equity transactions. Jordan represents purchasers and sellers in commercial real estate debt and equity acquisitions and dispositions; borrowers and institutional and non-institutional lenders in securitized and balance sheet financing transactions (including acquisition, construction, bridge, mezzanine, preferred equity) and workouts; owners and tenants in leasing transactions; equity participants in joint ventures; and developers in ground-up and redevelopment projects involving office, retail, industrial, multifamily, hospitality and mixed-use projects.

Jordan is also an Adjunct Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, teaching a seminar in real estate.

Solomon Birnbaum serves as President & Co-Founder of Towerline Group (formerly Fbre Capital). He is responsible for the firm’s family office & institutional clients, banking & financing relationships, strategic vision, business standards, business advisory, structuring and execution.

The firm's focus is on all commercial real estate property types at every stage (land, construction, bridge & permanent financing).
Additionally, the firm has expanded its mandate to the private & public real estate credit markets for opportunistic preferred equity and mezzanine financing.

Mr. Birnbaum began his career at J.P. Morgan, where he worked on two teams: the balance sheet lending arm of the Corporate and Investment Bank focused on large construction loans, and separately managed several billion of commercial real estate repo facility exposure to REITs & private equity backed real estate debt funds.

After J.P. Morgan, Mr. Birnbaum joined Dwight Capital, one of the fastest-growing multifamily lenders in the United States. At Dwight Capital, Mr. Birnbaum originated ground-up construction, bridge and permanent loans for multifamily and healthcare properties nationwide.

Mr. Birnbaum earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from NYU Stern School of Business.

Bob Knakal has been a broker in NYC since 1984. Over that time, he has brokered the sale of over 2,329 buildings having a market value of approximately $22 billion.

For 26 years of those years (1988-2014), he owned and ran Massey Knakal Realty Services which sold more than 3x the number of properties as the #2 firm in NYC from 2001-2014. Running the firm with a Servant Leadership management style, focusing on empowering everyone on the team, intensely training them and building their self-esteem, led to this overwhelmingly dominant platform. The firm was sold to Cushman & Wakefield in 2014 for $100 million.

The Massey Knakal Legacy is illustrated by the fact that today in the New York City investment sales market, there are 30 companies, or divisions of companies, that are either owned by, or run by, folks who learned the business at Massey Knakal.

Bob is a prominent thought leader in the commercial real estate business, frequently writing about the market, lecturing on the market, and appearing on podcasts and national television shows on networks like Fox, CNBC and MSNBC.

Abby, a Ukrainian (Jewish)-Chinese founder and partner of Caelus Capital, an investment management firm based in New York backed by sovereign wealth funds and foundations.

Before Caelus Capital, Abby worked as an investment advisor for a prominent global sovereign wealth fund. In this capacity, she played a pivotal role in sourcing top-tier deals, fund managers, and co-investors worldwide across infrastructure, real estate, Technology, Media, Telecommunications (TMT), and energy sectors.

Prior to her role at the sovereign wealth fund, she excelled as a portfolio manager at Cornell Hedge Fund. Her specialization in the consumer sector led to a remarkable total portfolio return of 346.24%. Her exceptional performance earned her the prestigious "best stock pick" award. Prior to her time at Cornell Hedge Fund, Abby functioned as a portfolio manager at a family office, where she effectively oversaw investments in TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecommunications) companies. Abby is a long-term investor of NetFlix, NVIDIA, Palantir, Costco and some Tech/AI stocks.

Abby's enthusiasm for education extends beyond investing; she established Caelus Education and CatamountED, EdTech companies that aim apply AI in education.

Abby holds an MBA from Cornell University, a B.S. and M.S. from New York University, and pursued a PhD at Harvard University

Harry started in the commercial real estate business as an investment sales broker with 3 years of experience at Meridian Capital and 4 years at JLL in New York City. During Harry's brokerage career, he transacted across asset classes in excess of $1B in total dollar volume. Harry moved to the principal side of the business in the fall of 2023. As Director of Acquisitions at City Urban Realty, Harry is focused on buying vacant or value-add multifamily/retail properties in Manhattan south of 96th Street and prime Brooklyn (deal size $2-$100M). He is also actively acquiring debt positions along the capital stack.