With nearly 30 years experience in various aspects of commercial real estate, as well as a distinguished retail management background, John Culmone brings a unique combination of talent and expertise ideally suited to guide CRA’s clients to maximum profitability and brand-building success. John also boats an unmatched background in sourcing development locations for shopping center as well as targeted tenant development. This work has included an impressive roster of the top retailers in the industry, including Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, Walgreen’s, CVS, Lowes and many others.

In addition to being an active member of the CRA client services team, John specializes in large parcel development. His many strengths include a keen eye for repurposing property, assembling multiple parcels in a strategic and economically viable fashion for shopping center or tenant development requirements and handling local politics. This history of work afforded him an extensive inventory of ownership and site identification information that’s second to none. John also serves as our resident expert on entitlement process and political maneuvering and brings this expertise to bear for CRA’s clients.

Prior to joining CRA, John led the development activities for two of the most respected and successful development companies in the Northeast. As Director of Development and Acquisitions for Breslin Realty Development on Long Island and Director of Development for the Richmond Company in Massachusetts, he was responsible for sourcing development projects for both the current profitability and for the future portfolio growth of the companies, as well as managing the current portfolio of retail properties. His responsibility included all project aspects from site sourcing through permitting, transactional as well as securing of anchor tenants. These projects included the likes of Home Depot, Target, Walmart, Lowes and others.

John’s background also includes experience on the corporate retail side of the industry, serving as Real Estate Manager for Allied Domecq on Long Island. This position carried responsibilities for Allied’s location expansion plan throughout the market. From strategic planning, budgeting, site search, transactional negotiation through capital expense package preparation and presentation, to design and construction, John touched all aspects of unit development.

In addition, he held positions in both real estate and retail management, including CB Commercial, Vice President of Retail Brokerage Services for Grubb & Ellis in Boston and extensive tenure with Sears Roebuck & Co. Rising from the Sears Credit Central division through personnel manager for Sears Watchung, NJ store to Merchandise Manager, Operations Manager & Store Manager for several locations in the Sears chain, John was responsible for all aspects of store performance. His crowning achievement was being a part of the management team that took a mediocre Hicksville, Long Island store to the largest volume and most profitable location in the entire chain in 1984.

John attended Adelphi University in Garden City, Long Island. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and Corenet. He now resides in Wading River, Long Island with his wife Marianne, a tenured teacher within the Shoreham Wading River school district.

With almost twenty years experience Mr. Raifaisen has focused on retail and office leasing, as well as investment sales. Along with the Team at CRA he is involved in sourcing new locations for various chains to continue their expansion in the New York City market, as well as the Long Island market.

He has been Involved in negotiating and consummating commercial real estate transactions for the following companies for the past twenty five years:

• Wal-Mart Stores
• 1st Nationwide Savings Bank
• Attorneys, Novitt, Sahr & Goldstein P.C.
• Den Norske Bank
• EAB Bank
• Citibank
• IDS American Express
• Polygram Records
• Newsday
• Commerce Bank
• Doctors
• New York State Dormitory Authority
• New York Health & Hospitals Corp
• Episcopal Health Services
• Yum Brands
• New York State Dept of Taxation
• Key Food Supermarkets
• Basser Kaufman
• Young Adult Institute
• Met Life
• The Lefrak Organization
• Cammeby’s International
• Red Robin Restaurants
• JetBlue Airlines
• Bally’s Health & Fitness
• Travelers Insurance
• Public Storage
• Roslyn Savings Bank
• General Cinema
• First Allied Corp
• Imperial Parking
• Trans Union Credit
• Manpower Services
• Emigrant Savings Bank
• Bramson Ort Technical Institute

Mr. Raifaisen has also sold several investment properties including:
Voice Road Plaza, Carle Place, NY – A shopping center containing approximately 135,000 square feet leased to nationally recognized, credit tenants such as, Big Lots, Staples, Party City and Ulta.

Centereach Plaza, Centereach, NY – A shopping center containing approximately 80,000 square feet leased to credit tenants such as LA Fitness, Harbor Freight, T-Mobile and Starbucks.

The Plaza at Rego Park, Rego Park, NY – A two story office/retail building containing approximately 50,000 square feet leased to Bank of America, Rite Aid and New York Sports Club of New York.

In his almost 30 years in retail commercial brokerage, Anthony Jurkovic has worked with most of the top retailers in the industry in their expansion in the New York Metropolitan Area, including Pep Boys, 7-Eleven, Ruby Tuesdays, R& S Strauss, Walgreens, CVS, Staples, Commerce Bank/TD Bank, Lowes, Blockbuster Video, Friday’s, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Costco, Home Depot, and others. His territorial knowledge and expertise at producing and assembling locations is unsurpassed anywhere in the industry. His specialty is sourcing sites in markets where others have failed. This results-driven performance has earned him a high degree of respect amongst retailers, developers, owners and peer brokers. Many brokers seek out Anthony to fulfill their clients’ tougher expansion requirements within his markets, knowing that he maintains a vast inventory of property owners and “quiet listings” at CRA.

Anthony leads the field team at CRA, ensuring that all CRA’s clients receive the highest quantity and quality of sites for review. He ensures that every team member maintains an exhaustive, street-level knowledge of transactions, property availabilities, comparables and current values. This affords CRA the ability to immediately source viable sites for our clients without having to spend precious time updating the market details. We also keep a very close watch on space coming available years into the future as well as space that appears to be underutilized or in jeopardy of a tenant defaulting. This gives our clients a huge edge in beating the competition.

Prior to founding CRA, Anthony spent about 20 years with SB Schwartz & Company of Great Neck, New York. Working hand in hand with the firm’s broker, he helped create and perfect the retail tenant representation service within the NY Metro market, building SB Schwartz into the top retail brokerage organization in the market. At its apex, SB Schwartz was the development partner for Pep Boys, Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesdays, 7- Eleven, Staples, McDonald’s, Tri-Con, Pizza Hut, and many others. Eventually merging with an affiliate firm in New Jersey and becoming Retail Realty, Anthony continued to service retail accounts throughout the NY Metro area. Retail Realty was eventually discontinued and SB Schwartz & Company downsized and eventually closed.

Anthony Jurkovic currently resides in Long Beach, New York and Little Neck, New York.

Counting past 30 years of experience in various aspects of real estate development, Alicea Santella brings a unique combination of talent and expertise ideally suited to guide CRA’s clients to maximum profitability and brand-building success. Along with the team at CRA she is involved in sourcing both locations and development opportunities in the Hudson Valley and Westchester County in New York as well as Fairfield County in Connecticut.

Prior to joining CRA, Alicea was affiliated with two of the most successful development organizations operating in the northeast. She was involved in sourcing development opportunities for retail shopping center development as well as targeted development for such retailers as Home Depot, Lowes, Walgreens, Target, Stop & Shop and others.

Alicea also has an extensive background in high-density residential land development, working all project phases, including design, entitlements procurement and construction. As a founding partner in Delphi Land Company she delivered hundreds of condominiums in multiple projects. As Delphi Land Company grew, Alicea opened, staffed and managed all aspects of their Elmsford office. Delphi eventually branched out into the retail sector and is known today as DLC Management Corp, a nationwide retail shopping center owner and developer.

For more than 20 years, Alicea worked on behalf of many major retailers, including Darden Restaurants, Walmart, Chase Bank, Walgreen’s and many others. She assisted in the development of market penetration plans, site selection, site analysis, lease and contract negotiations, due diligence and permitting. In addition, She worked with most of the major property owners in her territories to identify potential retail tenants for their holdings.

Prior to embarking on a real estate career, Alicea earned a Master’s Degree and RN designation, subsequently serving in various management capacities, including Director of Nursing or Head Nurse at several renowned New York institutions such as The Albert Einstein Medical Center and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Alicea Santella is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and attends various regional conferences each year within her extended market. She currently resides in New Fairfield, Connecticut with her son Gregory.