Ariel Property Advisors enjoyed a busy year. Our focus in 2018 has been on strengthening our internal structure, culture and collaboration. We want to make sure that our clients can leverage our resources, expertise and execution, and therefore, internal teamwork and the implementation of several key processes was crucial for us. Our mission remains the same: Provide real estate expertise that empowers clients, employees, and communities.

In the relationship business we have two main strategic components: 1. our professionals and personnel; and 2. our information. 

With the great work of Paul McCormick and our management team, the company achieved some satisfying organic growth. We promoted Matthew Gillis, David Khukhashvili, Daniel Mahfar, and Orry Michael to producer roles during 2018. We also made some key hirings, such as Larry Sarn, Stephen Vorvolakos, Alexander Taic, Matt Davis, and August Friscia to cover geographic cores in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan, respectively. They help us provide better geographic coverage and strengthen our territory-based approach. 

During 2018, our capital services group made great strides, both locally and nationally, and we expect to keep growing this team in 2019. Matthew Dzbanek, Matthew Swerdlow and our wonderful addition of Eli Weisblum have been busy advising our clients, as well as our brokers. 

Ariel Property Advisors is well-known for its in-depth research. David Baruch, together with our analysts and research personnel, have been working tirelessly to collect and dissect information from the market and our salespeople. As a result, our salesforce-based CRM can produce on-demand reports, which many of our private and institutional clients enjoy. Our investment research team in 2018 recorded information on almost every block and lot in New York City, ultimately producing multiple market reports, and conducting almost 1,000 asset evaluations on properties collectively worth nearly $11 billion. Our research continues to be unmatched in the industry and is often cited in news articles.

Our partner Ivan Petrovic, together with his team, rolled out Ariel’s Broker HUB this year. Broker HUB is an innovative salesforce-based pipeline and call management system, which allows our teams to collaborate on the highest level through this technology. One of the most rewarding aspects of Broker HUB was its widespread participation throughout the company, a testament to our team-oriented, collaborative culture.  

In 2018, we also continued our strong partnerships with non-profit and community-based charities, including Legal Outreach, Cookies For Kids Cancer, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Friends Of Israel Defense Forces, and the UJA Federation of NY. We also sustained our professional affiliations with REBNY, CHIP, the Bronx-Manhattan Association of Realtors and the New York State Association for Affordable Housing, along with several others. 

Lastly, the investment sales market was slower this year, but as a result it allowed us to gain market share. Our partners, Victor Sozio and Michael Tortorici, led many new transactions and this, together with the rest of our brokers, allowed us to gain some new and exciting clients. Equally important, we continued to receive a lot of repeat business in 2018, which in my opinion is the biggest compliment a service provider can receive. 

We are historically known for our strong presence in Northern Manhattan and The Bronx, and in 2018 we gained significant market share and awareness in these regions, led by the efforts of Jason Gold. We also witnessed a significant uptick in listing activity for assets in Manhattan below 96th St., with Howard Raber and Andre Sigourney leading the charge. In Brooklyn, we reached an all-time high for property listings, spearheaded by the senior level talent of Sean Kelly and Jonathan Berman, as well as Daniel Tropp. 

I am truly excited about 2019 and I want to wish everyone happy holidays and happy new year! 

Shimon Shkury is the founder and president of Ariel Property Advisors, New York, N.Y.