Vacker promoted to president and CEO of Meringoff Properties

New York, NY According to Himmel + Meringoff Properties, Jason Vacker has been promoted to president and CEO of its management company, Meringoff Properties, with responsibility for management, leasing, operations, financial reporting and administration for the company’s entire 14-building, 2 million s/f commercial portfolio. Previously serving as COO, Vacker replaces 31-year veteran, Farrell Virga, who retired earlier this month. 

“We’re thrilled Jason is taking our management and leasing company into its fifth decade,” said Stephen Meringoff, co-managing partner of Himmel + Meringoff Properties, Inc., and chairman of affiliated property management company, Meringoff Properties, Inc. 

“One of the core tenets of our corporate culture is our aspiration to cultivate the talents of our professionals. Jason is only our third president and CEO and, like Farrell, was promoted from within.  He has been instrumental in helping us to build the thriving commercial real estate business we own and manage today.”

Leslie Himmel, co-managing partner of Himmel + Meringoff Properties said, “Jason is unquestionably one of the brightest young stars in the business today and having experienced the depth of his capabilities, creativity and resourcefulness delivered consistently throughout his numerous challenging responsibilities over the past eight years we are confident he is the perfect choice to lead our management firm as president and CEO.”

Highlighting his increasing standing not just with Meringoff Properties but within New York’s commercial real estate industry more generally, Vacker was recognized in spring 2016 for his role in the joint structuring of the Real Estate Board of New York’s (REBNY) ‘Most Significant Retail Deal of the Year’ (2015).  The deal, a 36,000 s/f lease on behalf of retail giant, Foot Locker, at 1460 Broadway, effectively redrew the boundaries of the Times Square submarket, forging the connection between Herald Square and Times Square. The Foot Locker lease emerged as REBNY’s winner among 13 competing entries submitted by the city’s top real estate professionals. 

Prior to serving as Meringoff Properties’ COO, Vacker was employed as executive vice president and director of leasing. He joined the firm in 2008 as a vice president.  Vacker began his career in real estate as a commercial leasing broker at Newmark & Company.

Earning his BBA in finance, investment and banking from the Grainger School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vacker is a member of REBNY, and serves as current education chairman of YM/WREA.

He is also a board member of the Flatiron 23^rd Street Partnership and is actively involved as a mentor with the non-profit PENCIL. An avid runner, he completed his first New York City marathon in 2011.

New York City-based Himmel + Meringoff Properties’ operate one of the largest privately owned portfolios in Manhattan.  The company’s long-term investment strategy is based on successfully identifying and evaluating well-located but under-performing properties, and structuring complex transactions that are often highly customized to meet the disposition objectives of the property’s owners.  H + M’s approach to acquisitions includes joint ventures, net leases with options to buy and partial sale-leasebacks. The company has a 35-year track record of financial success in creating value through repositioning, renovating, re-tenanting and adaptive reuse using strategic capital infusion and vertically integrated in-house management.