Adam Henick of Current Real Estate Advisors: 5 Questions

Current Real Estate Advisors has been popping up in a lot more New York City deals lately.

Co-founded in 2018 by Adam Henick and Brandon Charnas, Current has become a worthy competitor to bigger brokerages when it comes to office and retail leases in the city. How? Well, it’s got a solid clientele.

One of Current’s first deals as a company — following its rebranding from Warwick Capital Management in 2018 — was members-only social club Zero Bond’s deal for 20,000 square feet at 0 Bond Street in NoHo. That deal not only propelled the popularity of private clubs in New York City, but it also solidified a place for Current in the city’s leasing world.

More recently, Current has been riding the AI and tech wave, representing tenants such as fintech firm Current (no relation) in its lease for more than 62,000 square feet at Penn 2, as well as Swedish AI company Legora in its deal for 27,238 square feet at 838 Broadway.

In addition to boasting in-demand clientele and completing deals in popular neighborhoods such as SoHo and the Flatiron District, Current Real Estate simply has the drive and expertise needed to compete with the big dogs, according to Henick. “We operate with the urgency and creativity of a startup, but the sophistication of a top-tier institutional adviser,” he said.

Henick spoke with Commercial Observer last week to discuss the firm’s recent deals, the popularity of private clubs in New York City, and how the incoming Mamdani mayoral administration might impact commercial deals in the city.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Commercial Observer: Current Real Estate Advisors seems to be expanding its reach into the venture capital/crypto world. How is that going? What recent deals have you completed?

Adam Henick: As an independent commercial brokerage, we’ve historically focused on being in tenant representation, primarily office space and some retail as well. We really consider ourselves an in-house real estate team for our clients, and we thrive on the relationships that we create with our clients. 

At the end of the day, I’d say 90 percent of our business is just our existing client roster introducing us to other people that they know, so it’s always validating when that happens, because, if we weren’t doing a good job, we wouldn’t be getting any business. And we’ve been fortunate to really have a great run of success over the last several years. This year alone, we’ve had north of half a million square feet of leasing. So I think for a smaller, independent shop, it’s something that we’re really proud of. We’ve been punching above our weight class for some time, and we intend to keep that going.

We have been particularly active over the last several years in the venture capital space, the crypto space, and also the crypto venture capital space. I think that speaks to how we go about getting our business through sustained, strong relationships, because those are industries where everyone knows everyone. It’s important to demonstrate confidence and sophistication in both industries, and we’ve demonstrated that we are the go-to real estate advisers within those realms. …  When I look back at the largest deals that we did this year as a firm, we did Current’s deal at Penn 2, AI firm Legora’s lease at 838 Broadway, and then another 60,000 square feet for The Farmer’s Dog, a great consumer brand in SoHo.

It’s also a function of where we work — we’re particularly active in the Midtown South submarkets: SoHo, Flatiron Square, the Meatpacking District. That’s where we’re seeing those types of firms looking to set up shop, whether they’re already existing New York firms that are relocating to more vibrant neighborhoods, or firms that are planting their flag in Manhattan, coming from the West Coast. We’re also working with firms internationally that are setting up offices here in New York, and we are the boots-on-the-ground experts for them.

Current specializes in office and retail in both New York City and Florida. How do those two markets compare right now? What trends are you seeing?

We opened our office in Florida [in 2020] because of the obvious trends that we were seeing from the demographic trends and desire from national businesses relocated to Florida, given some of the benefits that the state offered at the time and continues to offer. There are certain undeniable advantages that South Florida offers, but, relative to New York, I don’t feel like it’s offering the density, the energy and the economic scale that Manhattan offers. 

So I think they serve different purposes for different companies’ organizations, and I think it’s been an evolving process for companies to figure out how they’re spreading their national workforce, and where that’s being developed. 

But, from a hiring perspective, for growing companies there’s no place like New York City. 

You’ve represented some private clubs, such as Zero Bond. Why do you think there’s such a strong demand for those clubs?

This is a trend that came over from London, given the popularity of members-only clubs there, and we were on the front lines pioneering this trend in New York City with Zero Bond. It’s ironic — when we were putting that deal together, there was skepticism about what we were doing, because private member clubs were such a new, unknown entity in Manhattan. … Obviously, it’s been a huge success. Zero Bond was the original one here to stay highly relevant. And they’re really setting the trend and the tone for everything else that’s happening in Manhattan.

But the irony of saying that now is, if I were representing another members club, there might be skepticism from the landlord, because there’s too many now. So it’s funny how that landscape has changed so quickly. Seeing Zero Bond be able to continue to demonstrate success within the competitive landscape is a particular point of pride for us at Current, just given how integral we were at the onset, and how closely we’ve worked with them over the years.

How do you think the incoming Mamdani administration will impact CRE deals in New York City?

You know, I’m a bit of a glass-half-empty kind of guy, unfortunately. That being said, this is an instance where I feel like the obituary for New York City has been written a number of times, and it’s never proved to be true. Before Current, I was working in finance for nearly a decade in trading. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that the markets price things in well before they actually happen. It’s like a buy-the-room or sell-the-news type of thing.

This Mamdani victory had been on the horizon for months, so when he actually won the election, I didn’t view it as a particular surprise. And I don’t think many people did, just given the way that all the prediction markets and whatnot were trending for him. So my point is that 2025 has been an unbelievably busy year for the New York commercial market across the board, whether it’s office, capital markets, you name it. So, if there was real concern from business leaders leading up to it, we would have seen that.

At a macro level, New York City is one of the largest stand-alone economies in the world. It’s a global pillar of commerce, so this should be a city where leadership inspires businesses to grow, hire and invest. I think it’s the anti-business, anti-success rhetoric that spooks people. And this city thrives most when the leadership is a champion of ambition and celebrating success, not looking down upon it. … So while there are certainly elements of the mayor’s agenda that I don’t agree with, I’m hopeful that it’s not going to affect the broader business success of Manhattan.

What’s next for Current? Are you planning to open offices in any other U.S. cities in the next few years?

I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished. In this business, complacency is the quickest way to get run over in the market. We didn’t get here by being comfortable, we got here by outworking people, staying sharp, and approaching every assignment like we have to win it. Unfortunately, you can’t rely on just momentum in New York real estate. You really have to create it. So everything we’ve done has been earned, and we’re gonna keep earning it.

Broadly speaking, we operate with the urgency and creativity of a startup, but the sophistication of a top-tier institutional adviser. There are larger fish in the sea than us that are out there every day trying to take our business. We’ve been fortunate to continue to fend them off and grow in the process. So we’re always looking at exciting ways to grow our business. We’re always looking at adding the right personnel for our business. And we’re super proud of the team here and the success we’ve been able to create, and we want to build up.

One thing I will add is that historically, we’ve really been focused on strictly tenant representation, and recently we’ve been expanding our offering and taking on more landlord assignments, which is an exciting thing for our business and an organic way for us to continue to grow. And it’s really been a function of people in the market seeing and understanding what we’re doing and realizing that they don’t always have to hire the biggest institutional brokerage in the world to get their space leased with the best outcomes.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.