Anthony Cugini, 28

Anthony Cugini, 28

Leasing associate at Vornado Realty Trust

Anthony Cugini, 28
By December 6, 2022 9:00 AM

For Anthony Cugini, it was his father’s sage advice that helped push him into commercial real estate.

“My dad is a personal injury attorney and, needless to say, he’s not the happiest camper being a personal injury attorney,” Cugini said. “He always told me, ‘My landlord makes a lot more money than I do. Go into real estate.’ Both my brother and I, after hearing that for our entire lives, ventured ourselves into the real estate field.”

Cugini started out with internships at Cushman & Wakefield and JLL, later moving to Thor Equities and back to C&W for nearly four years in its agency consulting group. Although he started at Vornado Realty Trust only last year, he helped score a 120,000-square-foot deal for the biometric screening company Clear at Related Companies and Vornado’s 85 10th Avenue in Chelsea. And Cugini hasn’t slowed down.

In 2022 alone he leased an extra 50,000 square feet to New York University at Vornado’s One Park Avenue, expanding the university’s total footprint to 680,000 square feet, Cugini said. He also helped bring Empire BlueCross BlueShield to 70,000 square feet at 1 Penn Plaza in May and helped keep the real estate investment and development firm LCOR at that same building in July.

Those successes are due to his renewed focus on getting feedback from tenants and brokers on bringing employees back to work, Cugini said.

“A real big focal point for [us] specifically is to help best serve our tenants, which I think is a different approach than in the past,” Cugini said. “I think this year, specifically, really showed us that the little things are really the difference between getting a deal and not getting a deal.”

As for the little things that make Cugini happy outside of Vornado, he said he loves to ski just about anything with snow on it, spend time with his family, and play basketball at the New York Athletic Club. —C.Y.

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