Howard Stein, Certilman Balin

What was your most notable project, deal or transaction in 2013? Representing the Hain Celestial Group, Inc. in their lease of 90,000 s/f for their corporate headquarters in Lake Success from Apollo Real Estate. The project involved obtaining incentives from New York State and the Nassau County IDA in order to keep the multi-national corporation based on Long Island. What are your predictions for commercial real estate in 2014? This should be a transformative year for commercial real estate on Long Island with several major projects obtaining final approvals including many long awaited downtown redevelopments including Ronkonkoma, Hempstead, Huntington Station, Mineola and Glen Cove as well as the Heartland Development at Pilgrim State and AVR's Yaphank Meadows. Any one (or hopefully more) of these projects should stimulate the commercial real estate market and help retain jobs and reverse the migration of our young people from the region. I believe there is now the political will and the resources to begin that process in 2014.