In this week’s edition of The CRE News Hour, we go on-site at the NAIOP I.CON East conference in Jersey City to chat with Jeff Milanaik of Bridge Development Partners about multistory industrial properties, including Sunset Industrial Park, which Bridge is developing in Brooklyn, New York. We talk with Bruce Schanzer of Cedar Realty Trust about how to build mixed-use properties that address the urban food desert problem in some of the country’s economically challenged cities, and we introduce Aleksandra Scepanovic, who started Ideal Properties Group after immigrating to the United States from the former Yugoslavia, where she had a prior career as a journalist covering the war between Serbia and Bosnia.
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About the Guests
JEFF MILANAIK
Partner, Northeast Region, Bridge Development Partners
Jeff Milanaik, Partner, joined Bridge Development Partners in 2014 when he opened Bridge’s New Jersey office. Jeff is responsible for Bridge’s acquisition and development activities throughout the Northeast Region. Since joining the company, he has successfully completed transactions on nearly 9 million square feet of industrial real estate with a value in excess of $2 billion.
Jeff previously served as President/Partner of Heller Industrial Parks Inc., one of the nation’s largest privately held owner/developers of industrial real estate and holds over 30 years of experience in commercial real estate. In addition to developing the long-term vision and direction of the company, he was responsible for running its day-to-day operations. Jeff increased Heller’s industrial development activities to grow the portfolio by over 10 million square feet to a total of 16 million square feet in 6 states. Jeff left Heller in 2013 to start his own firm, CrownPoint Group LLC, a privately held real estate investment and development firm focused on the acquisition/development/repositioning of industrial and multi-family assets.
Jeff holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and received degrees from several real estate programs at Harvard University. He currently serves on the National Executive Board of NAIOP and is a member of the Board of Trustees of NAIOP-NJ, and is past President of NAIOP-NJ. In addition, he serves on the Advisory Boards of the DiLella Real Estate Center at Villanova University, Rutgers Center for Real Estate, and the New Jersey School of Architecture – NJIT. Jeff is also a member of SIOR and IOREBA.
ALEKSANDRA SCEPANOVIC
Founder and Managing Partner, Ideal Property Group
Aleksandra Scepanovic is Managing Director of Ideal Properties Group, a leading residential real estate firm specializing in premier Brownstone Brooklyn and Manhattan neighborhoods including Park Slope, Carroll Gardens and Brooklyn Heights, as well as Williamsburg, Gowanus, Chelsea and other sought-after locations.
The firm was founded in 2007 by Scepanovic and her partner Erik Serras, who identified a need to build a technologically innovative infrastructure for sales and rentals in key Brooklyn neighborhoods.
Scepanovic is responsible for business development at Ideal. Since founding the company, she has helped develop its foundation and technological edge, set its mission and implement a clear vision. Today, Scepanovic continues to formulate Ideal’s strategy, identifies and monitors the markets, works at upholding the company’s values, oversees hiring and marketing, and assists her partner in setting Ideal’s direction and building its culture by creating an exciting and supportive environment for brokers to work.
Earlier in her career, Scepanovic worked as an editor and media analyst in her home country of former Yugoslavia. Her firsthand experience of reporting from the war zones of the Balkans robbed of their beauty, and the country’s horizons riddled with broken “Swiss cheese-like” buildings, left her not only longing for peace, but also with a belief in architecture as a symbol of perseverance and the human need to rebuild and move on.
She came to New York with a strong desire to design and create, which led her to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. The program awakened her inner eye for detail, and invigorated her passion for architecture and interiors. She incorporates this experience into the real estate industry, and continuously utilizes her project management skills and designer’s eye to take her business to the next level.
With offices in Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope, Williamsburg and Chelsea and a staff of over 250 highly-trained real estate brokers and salespeople, Ideal is rapidly expanding across Brooklyn and Manhattan.
BRUCE J. SCHANZER
President and Chief Executive Officer, Cedar Realty Trust
Schanzer has been President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of Cedar Realty Trust since June 2011. Prior thereto and since 2007, Bruce was employed by Goldman Sachs & Co., with his last position being a managing director in their real estate investment banking group. From 2001 to 2007, he was employed by Merrill Lynch, with his last position being vice president in their real estate investment banking group. Earlier in his career, Bruce practiced real estate law for six years in New York. Bruce received a B.A. from Yeshiva College, where he is now a member of its Board of Trustees, an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review.
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Steve Lubetkin is the news director for StateBroadcastNews.com. Steve’s journalism background includes print and broadcast reporting for NJ news organizations. He refocused on multimedia journalism and podcast production after a long career in corporate branded journalism and public relations.
He has won numerous awards for his audio and video news reporting from the Garden State Journalists Association, and he has also been recognized for video by the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has produced a wide range of audio and video podcasts in his other role as managing partner of State Broadcast News’s parent, The Lubetkin Media Companies.
Steve is co-author, with Toronto-based podcasting pioneer Donna Papacosta, of the book, The Business of Podcasting: How to Take Your Podcasting Passion from the Personal to the Professional.
In March 2021, he was elected to the board of directors of the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and in July 2021 he was named secretary of the chapter. In August 2021, he was honored by SPJ with one of the organization’s 2021 Howard S. Dubin Outstanding Pro Member Awards, given to regular members of an SPJ chapter who go above and beyond in serving their chapter.
Steve has been the computer columnist for the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey, since 1996.
Steve also has reported on-camera and produces virtual conferences for NJSpotlightNews.org, a public policy news coverage website focused on New Jersey government and industry; and for clients of StateBroadcastNews.com, a division of The Lubetkin Media Companies LLC.
From May-November 2019, he produced and reported a weekly podcast, The CRE News Hour, a news and features program focusing on the commercial real estate industry.
From 2014 to 2019 he was New Jersey and Philadelphia editor for GlobeSt.com and filled in covering Chicago/Midwest and Atlanta.
Steve has also served (from August 2017 to March 2018) as national broadcast news correspondent for CEOReport.com, a news website focused on practical advice for senior executives in small- and medium-sized companies.
Earlier in his career, Steve reported on rock music at the Jersey Shore for the Asbury Park Press, and was a broadcast news anchor and production engineer for WJLK-AM & FM, then owned by the Press. He also worked as a general assignment reporter for the Red Bank Register, Shrewsbury, NJ.
You can email Steve at steve@statebroadcastnews.com.
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