Columbus REALTORS® held its 16th annual Commercial Recognition Awards celebration on Tuesday, April 11, 2024, at Revery. Over 100 commercial practitioners were on hand to applaud the outstanding accomplishments of our 2023 honorees.
Second-City Alum and fellow central Ohio REALTOR® Carole Greenzalis served as the emcee. Awards were presented by Lynn Singh, Bryan Savage, Jamie Cleverly, Jackie Delay, Martha Hunley, Jesse Shkolnik, Max Fischer, Dan Sheeran, Jr., Amie Lenhart, David Coe, and Troy Fabish with video congratulations from Matt Lofy, and Bob Weiler.
Erica Blumenstein Memorial Award
James V. Maniace, Senior Council/Columbus, Taff Stettinius & Hollister LLP
We were honored to present James V. Maniace with the 2023 Erika Blumenstein Memorial Award for his professionalism and outstanding commitment to the commercial real estate industry and the central Ohio community.
As Senior Council with Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, Jim advises all business and corporate law aspects in the real estate, land use, FWO oil and gas areas. He frequently serves as outside general counsel to companies of all sizes, including closely held and family-owned companies.
Jim handles various complex business and real estate transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, debt restructuring, refinancing, sales, and exchanges of real property and leasing.
His twenty-plus years of service as the Chairman of the City of Columbus’ Board of Zoning Adjustment have enhanced his ability to find solutions to land use issues. He frequently engages municipalities, townships, and counties on behalf of developers.
Jim is a lecturer in Real Estate Law at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and for Columbus REALTORS® has taught several commercial classes, including the Commercial Core Law, Negotiable Lease Terms: Landlords/Tenants, and Civil Rights.
He was also twice recognized as Columbus REALTORS® Commercial Instructor of the Year in 2014 and 2020 and has served for many years on the Columbus REALTORS® Commercial Standard Forms Committee.
Jim is the recipient of numerous awards, including Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year,” Land Use and Zoning Law Columbus” (2024), Columbus CEO “Top Lawyers,” Public Finance Law (2021-present), Medical Mutual AXA Advisors Non-profit Board “Executive of the Year” (2016), and Best Lawyers “Best Lawyers in the Land” (2016–present). He is a past president of The Columbus Metropolitan Club and Columbus Rotary.
Jim graduated cum laude with a BA degree from the University of Notre Dame and a law degree from Duke University School of Law.
Commercial Community Service Award
Matt Gregory SIOR®, CCIM, Executive Managing Director, NAI Ohio Equities
For his professionalism and outstanding commitment to service, the commercial real estate profession, and the central Ohio community, we were honored to present Matt Gregory with our 2023 Commercial Community Service Award.
Matt’s community involvement encompasses a wide variety of institutions and charitable organizations, including currently serving as an FC Bank Advisory member, and on the Worthington Community Improvement Corporation, past president of the Building Worthington's Future, Worthington Chamber of Commerce, and the Worthington Tax Incentive Review Council. He has also served as a past president and current member of Worthington AM Rotary and volunteers at the Worthington Resource Pantry, Columbus Dream Center, and Homework Help Center.
He is a past Board Member of the Worthington Partnership, a former Athletic Director, Basketball Coach, and Fundraising Chair at St Michael Athletic Association. He has volunteered with the Furniture Bank, Volunteers of America, Operation Backpack, Ronald McDonald House, Home for Families Toy Drive, At Home by High, Senior Citizen Present Delivery, and St Vincent De Paul Adopt a Family program.
Matt has been consistently recognized as a CoStar Power Broker and Central Ohio Commercial Information Exchange (COCIE) Top Producer. He has been named a Top Professional Under 40 recipient by Columbus Realtors®, served as the President of Columbus Commercial Industrial Investment Realtors® (CCIIR), and previously chaired the Commercial Advisory Board at Columbus Realtors®. He is a former adjunct professor at Columbus State and a regular speaker on real estate panels. Matt is also one of just 15 agents in Columbus who holds both a SIOR and CCIM designation.
Matt graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication. In addition to representing several non-profits with their real estate needs, Matt champions their philanthropic efforts personally and professionally.
Rookie of the Year
Noah Heath, Equity, LLC
Since joining Equity, Noah Heath has distinguished himself in the company with his professionalism, communication skills, and considerable effort in ensuring he gets the best result for his clients.
Noah began his career as an advanced brokerage candidate, focusing primarily on the retail asset class, handling leases, sales, development opportunities in the Columbus and Dayton markets, and tenant and landlord representation. In 2022, his first year as a 1099 agent, he was involved in deals that resulted in a total transaction volume of nearly 17 million dollars.
He is an active member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and sits on the ICSC Next Gen Board for ICSC members under 40, where he helps plan, promote, and attend local ICSC events in Ohio and the Midwest.
He is active in his church, a volunteer with Vision Trust, an organization that raises money and sponsors children in Guatemala, participates in trips to the Village of Cruz Blanca every two years to visit the children sponsored by the Trust, and a volunteer with Welcome Warehouse in Dublin.
Noah holds a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from High Point University. Still, shortly after graduating, he discovered he was more interested in and passionate about commercial real estate.
Noah has been described as an extremely positive person who is always willing to volunteer for events, invest time with new agents and interns, and has a team-first mentality. All great qualities for a successful career in real estate and an ideal honoree for Rookie of the Year!
Most Unique Transaction
Mark Sullivan, Broker, Keller Williams Greater Columbus
This deal included a land assemblage of 14 properties within the New Albany International Business Park, Intel Park, and Technology Park along Jug Street and Harrison Road.
The unique aspect of this transaction was establishing confidence with the property owners and getting them all to agree to assemble their parcels as a whole. Initially, the property owners were concerned about how to sell their properties and purchase a replacement home with escalating pricing in the home market. Mark was able to ease those concerns and showed them how the value of selling as an assemblage would be better for them than selling individual parcels.
Coordinating all the pieces of this deal included managing multiple offers, with the primary offer falling through, putting the backup offer in play, identifying and releasing oil and gas leases, organizing the closings for the assemblage and replacement home purchases, and identifying 1031 exchanges for the investors.
Mark began working on this deal on March 20, 2020, and closed it for $21,695,251 on January 13, 2023.
Most Co-op Transactions
Matt Gregory, CCIM, SIOR, Andy Dutcher, SIOR, and Philip Bird, SIOR, NAI Ohio Equities, were presented with this award for closing 58 co-op deals with 25 different companies last year.
Largest Commercial Transactions – Sale or Lease
2023 Largest Transaction Multi-Family Transaction – Ashley Simonton, Hanna Commercial, LLC, picked up this award for the sale of the property located at 5457 Wellington Woods Blvd that closed on January 1, 2023 for $5,175,000.
2023 Largest Transaction Industrial (lease)— Blake DeCrane, Matt Osowski, SIOR, and Curt Berlin, SIOR, NAI Ohio Equities, won this award for leasing 423,197 square feet of industrial space at the BTS Distribution Center on Sawmill Parkway in Delaware, OH. This 123-month lease deal closed on February 14, 2023, with a lease volume of $29,836,599.
2023 Largest Transaction Industrial (sale) – Doug Tenenbaum, Hanna Commercial LLC, was presented this award for brokering the nearly 9-million-dollar sale of 75,333 square feet of industrial space located at 3436-3442 Millenium Court in Columbus, OH. This property closed on December 29, 2023.
2023 Largest transaction Office (lease) – Austin Wathen and Jesse Shkolnik, Equity, LLC,
received this award for negotiating the lease of 73,613 square feet of office space at 4024 Green Stripe Lane in Hilliard, OH. This 15-year lease deal closed on July 21, 2023.
2023 Largest Transaction Office (sale) – Phillip Bird, SIOR, Matt Gregory, CCIM, SIOR, and Andy Dutcher, SIOR, NAI Ohio Equities, earned this award for the sale of office space located at 400 East Campus View Blvd in Columbus, OH. This space sold for 7.5 million dollars and closed on July 21, 2023.
2023 Largest Transaction Retail (lease) - Aaron Heath, Equity, LLC, won this award for brokering a deal to lease 5,345 square feet of retail space at Shawnee Station Retail Center, 6058 Glick Road, Powell, OH. This 10-year lease, with a lease volume of $2,361,114, closed on March 8, 2023.
2023 Largest Transaction Retail (sale) – Lynn Singh, REMAX Affiliates/Commercial Division, was presented this award for the sale of retail space located at 1398 North Bridge Street in Chillicothe, OH. This space sold for $952,000 and closed on June 5, 2023.
2023 Top Producers
Andy Dutcher, SIOR, NAI Ohio Equities
Matt Gregory, CCIM, SIOR, NAI Ohio Equities
Scott Hrabcak, Hanna Commercial, LLC
Doug Tenenbaum, Hanna Commercial, LLC
2023 Top Producer (Team)
Curt Berlin, SIOR, NAI Ohio Equities, REALTORS®
Blake DeCrane, NAI Ohio Equities, REALTORS®
Matt Osowski, SIOR, NAI Ohio Equities, REALTORS®
2023 Top Producer – Generalist
Randy Best, SIOR, Best Corporate Real Estate
John Mally, NAI Ohio Equities, REALTORS®
Andy Mills, CCIM, SIOR, Elford Realty
2023 Top Producer – Retail
Aaron Heath, Equity
2023 Top Producer – Office
Philip Bird, SIOR, NAI Ohio Equities, REALTORS®
Wayne Harer, CCIM, SIOR, Newman, Knight, Frank
The Columbus REALTORS® Commercial Recognition Committee organized this event, which was made possible by the generous support of our sponsors:
Park National Bank (Premier & Bar Sponsor)
Crexi (Premier)
Donald R. Kenney & Company (Gold)
NAI Ohio Equities (Gold)
Equity, LLC. (Silver)
Best Corporate Real Estate (Bronze)
LandSel Title Agency, Inc. (Bronze)
Northwest Title (Bronze)
CCIIR (Bronze)
