Record 500 expected for "Real Estate Fight Night" on November 21

A record 500 executives representing a virtual who’s who in New York real estate will fill the ringside seats at Madison Square Garden Theatre Friday night, November 21, for the bi-annual Real Estate Fight Night, the first mixed martial arts event ever at “the world’s most famous arena.” Commercial real estate professionals will have the opportunity to cheer on real estate professional and also amateur Muay Thai master Chris Kwiatkowski of J.D. Carlisle in addition to the scheduled 20 professional bouts taking place throughout the evening. Past attendees have included executives from Tishman Speyer, the Durst Organization, Starwood Capital, the Witkoff Group, Thor Equities, UBS Real Estate, Vornado Realty Trust, DDG, Hines, and Extell Development. The event is also frequently attended by many of the city’s top chefs including Anthony Bourdain, Todd English, Laurent Gras, Paul Liebrandt and John Fraser. Real estate Fight Night was first created in 2004. Co-hosts Matt Schmeelk, senior executive vice president of Kensington Vanguard National Land Services, along with Kevin Lillis, EVP, Sahara Group and CEO of Victory Combat Sports, continue to oversee the event’s rapid growth year after year with Peter Auerbach, chief investment officer, Alto Investments. “The event started with 100 fans in a church basement and kept growing each year primarily through word of mouth and email blasts,” said Schmeelk. “Now 10 years later, Real Estate Fight Night is renowned in the real estate space as a twice-a-year event to which the industry looks forward.” “It’s amazing to see that 10 years later Real Estate Fight Night has become one of the most anticipated events of the year in the New York real estate community,” said Lillis. “We’re quite proud of that.” Not only is Fight Night for fans and aficionados, it is a marquee event where business gets done and old and new connections are made by professionals across the broad spectrum of the New York real estate community including developers, lenders, private equity funds, sponsors, REITs, hospitality and attorneys. Tickets are $80 a person and can be purchased by emailing [email protected] through Thursday afternoon, November 20. Please indicate the name for each ticket and how many you would like. All tickets may be picked up Friday, November 21 after 5:30 pm at The Thirsty Fan at 254 West 31st Street, east of Eighth Avenue. Fans can also purchase tickets directly at The Thirsty Fan after 5:30 pm .on the day of the event, but the number of tickets available will be limited, Schmeelk said. Fights begin at 6 p.m. and run thru 11 p.m. For further information, go on www.realestatefightnight.com. or contact Matt Schmeelk at [email protected] or Kevin Lillis at [email protected]