Real Estate Mezzanine Financing Forum

Daniel Ross Berman counsels developers, investors, lenders and operators in a range of real estate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, development deals, preferred equity investments, loans, leases, recapitalizations and restructurings. His work spans hospitality, industrial, health care, entertainment, retail, office, multifamily and mixed-use properties.

Dan has a national practice that includes acquisitions, dispositions and joint venture development deals across the country as well as a localized practice with an emphasis on complex development deals. For example, Dan is currently handling numerous redevelopment projects in New York City involving various religious and charitable institutions, each with different deal structures. These include ground leasing the land during development and dividing the ownership of the completed building between the developer and the institution by converting the property to a commercial condominium.  

Dan is a member of Kramer Levin’s Pro Bono, Ethics and Technology committees.

Shaunak Tanna is an executive director at PGIM Real Estate. Based in New York, Shaunak is responsible for sourcing, underwriting, and structuring real estate investments including senior and mezzanine loans and preferred equity transactions for the eastern U.S. 

Prior to joining PGIM Real Estate, Shaunak was Head of Structured Investments for Basis Investment Group, LLC, where he was responsible for the firm’s mezzanine and bridge lending, and originated a range of investments across stabilized, development and transitional value-add properties. Before Basis, he was with Terra Capital Partners, LLC and its affiliate The Greenwich Group International, LLC. 

Shaunak has a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting and taxation from the University of Mumbai and a Master of Business Administration in real estate from Baruch College. Shaunak is also a Chartered Accountant, and an active member of the Advisory Board for Steven Newman Real Estate Institute of Baruch College.

Nick Hoffman is a partner in the Real Estate Practice Group in the New York office of Haynes and Boone. Nick regularly represents investment banks, commercial banks, and foreign and domestic private equity clients in sophisticated real estate transactions, including structured loans, mezzanine loans, construction financing, preferred equity investments and joint ventures. Nick devotes a significant portion of his practice to capital markets and syndication work in the debt space including note sales, intercreditor arrangements and participations. Nick also has experience with debt restructurings work-outs, and single asset and portfolio acquisitions and dispositions.

Before joining the firm, Nick was a senior executive with the Ruben Companies, a Manhattan based developer, and was involved in all aspects of the management and development of its office and residential portfolio in New York, Washington, D.C. and Boston.

John Randall joined PCCP in December 2009 and leads East Coast originations for the Firm out of New York. Since joining PCCP, Mr. Randall has originated over 100 equity and debt transactions aggregating in excess of $2 billion including hotel, retail, office, condo, multi-family and industrial investments and including senior debt, mezzanine, preferred equity and joint venture equity.  Prior to PCCP, Mr. Randall spent six years and invested over $1 billion in real estate debt and preferred equity positions within the Real Estate Private Equity group of Lehman Brothers. Prior to Lehman Brothers, Mr. Randall was a Vice President with Deutsche Bank, originating and underwriting mezzanine investments for the DB Real Estate Mezzanine Investment Funds. Mr. Randall's experience also includes work at Daiwa Securities originating and structuring conduit loans for their CMBS group.  Mr. Randall started his career with Arthur Andersen and Jones Lang Wootton where he valued over $1 billion of real estate in the U.S. and Latin America. Mr. Randall has over 25 years of real estate experience and holds a B.A. in Economics from Bowdoin College, magna cum laude, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Stephen R. Quazzo is Pearlmark’s Co-Founder, CEO, and Chair of the firm’s Management Committee and the PEP II Investment Committee. From 1991 to 1996, Mr. Quazzo served as President of Equity Institutional Investors, Inc., a subsidiary of investor Sam Zell’s private holding company, Equity Group Investments, Inc. Mr. Quazzo was responsible for raising equity capital and performing various portfolio management services in connection with the firm’s real estate investments, including institutional opportunity funds and public REITs. Prior to joining the Zell organization, Mr. Quazzo was in the Real Estate Department of Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he was a Vice President responsible for the firm’s real estate investment banking activities in the Midwest.

Mr. Quazzo holds undergraduate and MBA degrees from Harvard University, where he has served as a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors for the business school and as an Alumni Association Director for the college. He is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute, past Trustee and Chairman of the ULI Foundation, a member of the Pension Real Estate Association, and a licensed real estate broker in Illinois. Mr. Quazzo is a public company director of Marriott Vacations Worldwide (NYSE: VAC) and Phillips Edison & Co. (NASDAQ: PECO). For 22 years (1994-2016), he also served as a director of Starwood Hotels & Resorts (NYSE: HOT), which in 2016 merged with Marriott International (NYSE: MAR). Mr. Quazzo serves on a number of non-profit boards, including: Rush University Medical Center, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Endowment, the Chicago Parks Foundation, and Deerfield Academy.

Paul M. Fried, Executive Managing Director and Head of Equity Capital Markets, is responsible for leading Greystone’s equity capital placement services. Paul’s team advises on structuring creative equity solutions and capital strategies and sources institutional equity on behalf of real estate owners and developers nationwide across all commercial asset classes.

Paul joined GBG from L&L Holding, where he was a Managing Director and head of Equity and Debt Capital Markets. Paul’s experience spans over two decades and numerous economic cycles, providing clients with a unique perspective on successfully managing the equity capital markets. Projects at L&L, alone, encompassed over $4 billion in strategic acquisitions, equity recapitalizations and development projects, such as 425 Park Avenue in Manhattan. Prior to L&L, Paul oversaw the Real Estate Banking and Restructuring Group at Traxi LLC.

Paul was a Director at Deutsche Banc Mortgage Capital and a member of the Investment Committee, and co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of mezzanine lender Allegiance Capital. He was an attorney with Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.

Paul has a JD from Rutgers (Newark), where he was an Editor of the Law Review, and a BA from Rutgers College (New Brunswick; History) where he was a Henry Rutgers Scholar. He is a Council Member of the Urban Land Institute.

Mr. Woodard is a Managing Director based in the Connecticut office.

Prior to joining the firm in 2011, Mr. Woodard was a Vice President in the Commercial Real Estate Department at CIT Group, Inc. Before joining CIT, Mr. Woodard was an Acquisitions Associate at Lexington Realty Trust.

Mr. Woodard holds a B.A. in Economics from Union College and an M.P.S. in Real Estate Finance and Investment from Cornell University.