NYREC Board
Craig Livingston
Chair
As the Managing Partner of Exact Capital, Mr. Livingston is responsible for the core aspects of the firm’s Commercial Real Estate development activity including structuring, negotiating, financing and managing the firm’s development pipeline and the respective ventures formed around the firm’s development projects. Mr. Livingston has advised, structured, and executed in excess of $1.5 billion of financing for numerous transactions ranging from market rate luxury condominiums, hotels, & market rate rentals, to middle- and low-income affordable housing. To date Mr. Livingston has developed or preserved over 4,000 residential units and has spearheaded the firm’s national expansion into southern and Midwest markets. He has overseen the firm’s marquee development projects including Harlem’s first world class hotel rising above the site of the historic Victoria Theater, and an adjacent mixed income residential tower. Mr. Livingston also serves as Board Chair of the New York Real Estate Chamber (NYREC), the leading advocacy group for diverse developers within New York state. He has been instrumental in advocating for legislation and policies that support the ideals of increased economic opportunity and access to capital for Minority Commercial Real Estate developers.
Christopher Bramwell Jr.
Vice Chair
R. Christopher Bramwell, Jr. is a second-generation real estate professional and investor with over 25 years of industry experience. His passion for community development led him to co-found CB Emmanuel Realty LLC (CBE) with his partner Ben Upshaw in 2005. Chris has served as President of Shinda Management Corporation (SMC), a MBE certified property management firm which he now co-chairs. He sits on various boards and serves as a trustee of Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
Thomas Campbell
Treasurer
Thomas is a founder and leads the origination, negotiation and execution of Thorobird investments. Thomas leverages an accomplished background in investment management as a quantitative analyst and portfolio manager for Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley. A graduate of the Colgate University, he holds both a B.A. in Economics and is an active Member of the Colgate Real Estate Club of New York. He also has a MBA in Real Estate Finance and Entrepreneurship from Columbia Business School.
R. Donahue Peebles
Board
Don Peebles is founder, chairman and CEO of The Peebles Corporation, one of the country’s few privately held national real estate investment and development companies in the United States with a multi-billion dollar project portfolio spanning key markets in the nation including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Charlotte and Washington D.C. In an era where social responsibility, social inclusion and making change are often seen as buzz-phrases, Don Peebles is creating change and making opportunities happen in communities by leveraging his expertise and entrepreneurial skills in Real Estate investment and development. Don Peebles and The Peebles Corporation uniqueness is guided by his company’s own principles of Affirmative Development (TM) to empower women and minorities to close the wealth gap – with the aim of developing not just land or buildings, but opportunities and people also.
Cheryl McKissack-Daniel
Board
President & CEO Cheryl McKissack Daniel leads McKissack & McKissack, the oldest minority and woman owned professional design and construction firm in the nation. With more than 25 years of experience in construction, she serves as Project Executive on numerous high-profile projects, including major work in the commercial, healthcare, education and transportation sectors and is actively involved in project oversight and management, ensuring that diversity is implemented during each project phase. Under her direction, McKissack & McKissack has contracted more than $50 billion dollars in construction over the past decade. Cheryl serves on various boards, including the New York Building Congress, New York Real Estate Chamber, New York Women’s Forum and Women’s Builders Council. Under the leadership of Mayor Bill de Blasio, she serves the OneNYC Advisory Board, Jobs for New Yorkers Task Force and the MWBE Advisory Council. She also served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for NYS Governor elect Andrew Cuomo’s Transition Team. Cheryl is an active member in Women in Transportation (WTS).
Dwayne Jeffrey
Board
Dwayne Jeffrey began his real estate career as a loan officer with the New York Capital Exchange Corp and quickly became a top producer in the company, closing over 180 transactions in 4 years. After NYCE, Mr Jeffrey started a real estate consulting company providing acquisition, rehabilitation, and financial structuring of distressed multi-family real estate projects. Mr Jeffrey was simultaneously a partner in real estate syndication company focus on multi-family projects in New York City and Albany, wherein he was responsible for sourcing capital from high net worth individuals.
Nicole Lockett
Board
As Genesis’ Managing Director of Development, Nicole draws on nearly 20 years of industry acumen in the public and private sectors to finance complex housing developments for the firm. In this role, Nicole crafts and executes real estate projects involving Year 15 re-syndication, conventional debt, taxable and tax-exempt bonds, LIHTCs, RAD, HOME, CDBG, and a range of other public and private funding sources. Prior to joining Genesis, Nicole served as a developer with Pennrose Properties and as a manager for the Philadelphia Housing Authority
Gordon Bell
Secretary
Gordon is COO, of Shinda Managment Corporation. A graduate of Harvard College and Business school, Gordon is also a Chartered Financial Analyst and has worked at top Wall Street firms for over 30 years. As founding chairman and continuing board member of the New York Real Estate Chamber, and a founding and current member of the Black Business Collaborative, Mr. Bell has helped convene the most successful minority and women led real estate firms, other businesses and faith based organizations to engage and develop solutions with both the business and government communities. Mr. Bell also advises wealthy families regarding social impact. Gordon follows in the footsteps of Sydney Poitier and Cab Calloway and is a proud member of the Westchester Clubmen.
Derrick Lovett
Board
Mr. Derrick Lovett is currently President/CEO at MBD Community Housing Corporation, a 501c3 multi-faceted Bronx-based community development agency, dedicated to preserving and creating affordable housing. During his eleven-year tenure as President, he closed on over $562 million of rehabilitation, and new construction deals. Prior to MBD, Mr. Lovett was a tenured banker with over 25 years of service in the finance industry as VP at JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup. He has vast experience in all types of commercial credits. He was responsible for the origination, underwriting, and portfolio management of all types of commercial real estate loans. Mr. Lovett managed a $500 million portfolio, and negotiated $250 million in construction and permanent financing in his last year as a banker alone.
Dawanna Williams
Board
Dawanna Williams established Dabar Development Partners as a full-service real estate development and investment firm focused on the preservation, renovation and new construction of architecturally significant real estate properties. With over 20 years of experience in the industry and a background that spans both real estate law and business, Dawanna guides projects with a unique approach that combines her expertise as a legal and business pragmatist, strong community-driven values and a passion for refined materials and design.
Kenneth Morrison
Board
Kenneth M. Morrison is the President of Lemor Realty Corporation, a second-generation mixed income housing developer and property manager in business for over 30 years. He co-founded Lemor Development Group in 2014 which focuses on real estate investments, consulting and development. Mr. Morrison's companies have worked with various municipal agencies including the NYS HCR, NYC HDC, NYC HPD, City of Newark, NJ and HUD. Mr. Morrison has successfully developed affordable housing for sale and rent throughout the City of New York and Newark, NJ. Lemor Development is currently working in partnership with various development partners and the New York City Housing Authority to rehabilitate over 2300 units throughout the borough of Manhattan. LDG has various development projects in development including: “The Robeson” a 79-unit new construction located on Lenox Avenue in Central Harlem; “Mt. Hope Renaissance” a 515-unit preservation development in the South Bronx in partnership with NCV Hope LLC and Mount Hope Housing; “Balton Commons” a new construction mixed use development partially financed with Low Income Tax Credits in partnership with Apex Construction. With a strong commitment towards developing affordable/work force housing, the LDG team currently has various development projects in the pipeline throughout New York City and the region. Ken and the LDG team have recently ventured into new markets with the purchase of the Retreat at Baywood a multi-family housing complex located in Clayton County, Georgia and has recently purchased a multi-family development in the city of Atlanta.
Manuel Burgos
Political Advisor
Manny founded BTN Consulting in 2013 to serve the housing and economic development communities through his unique skill set. His experience includes time as special assistant and principal troubleshooter to the Commissioner/CEO of NYS Homes & Community Renewal and before that he garnered over 20 years’ experience working for leading private and nonprofit developers and private real estate firms. He's often called upon as a panelist on MWBE contracting and construction site labor-related issues, and has served as an adviser to many elected officials, policy makers, community groups, and more seeking to better understand government-related compliance and community-based outreach.
Darrell Gay
Legal Advisor
Darrell Gay is a Labor & Employment Partner at Arent Fox. As part of his nationally recognized work, Darrell advises clients on decisions relating to employee management, including critical cultural and diversity issues. Darrell focuses on assisting his clients with compliance with national and local labor/employment laws and management best practices. Darrell has developed and provided training to the management teams of his clients on issues including employee performance, conducting internal investigations, leave laws, and sexual harassment. Darrell’s work for clients includes management of union and pre-union environments, union negotiations, and NLRB matters. In addition, he serves as chief negotiator for his clients during collective-bargaining sessions. Darrell has led internal investigations of senior-level executives, frequently being retained by the entities' Corporate Board of Directors. He has experience before administrative agencies as well as Federal and State courts and has handled investigations conducted by the New York State Attorney General's office.
Brittany Rivera
Director of Operations
Brittany Rivera is the Director of Operations for the New York Real Estate Chamber and Project Administrator at McKissack & McKissack. For the last 3 years with NYREC, Brittany has been a force in improving and maintaining the overall functions of the organization. Brittany is responsible for managing NYRECs financial accounts, Membership outreach, event planning, communications, amongst other various responsibilities. During her 3 years with McKissack & McKissack, Brittany has worked on large scale projects such as The New Terminal One and Coney Island Hospital, where she took on roles such as Assistant Superintendent, Project Administrator and Diversity Compliance Associate. Brittany Graduated with a BA in Digital Media and Film from SUNY New Paltz with honors. Today, Brittany still utilizes her creative skills with content creation, photography/videography, website engineering/management, and marketing.