David Shalom.
David Shalom, 27
Director of tri-state investment sales at Avison Young
David Shalom ended up in brokerage by a happy accident more than by design.
Born and bred in Brooklyn, Shalom took a gap year after high school, but the freedom quickly turned to boredom, so he returned early and interned at then-Massey Knakal. When the gap year ended, the firm offered him a full-time job, and he took it instead of going to college. Shalom took classes in real estate finance at New York University, giving him a head start on some of his peers.
“I’m only 27,” he said, “but I’ve been working in real estate for almost 10 years.”
When Massey Knakal was acquired by Cushman & Wakefield, Shalom spent a few years there before moving to Avison Young, where he’s now a director on the tri-state investment sales team under James Nelson.
Early in his career, Shalom was part of the team that helped sell 435 10th Avenue, which would become Hudson Yards’ Spiral, to Tishman Speyer. The Spiral is now a 2.8 million-square-foot office development, standing 65 stories tall, designed by architectural firm Bjarke Ingels.
A more recent deal was the $22.5 million sale of two properties with 73 units at 103-105 MacDougal Street, which closed in June. The deal had interest at $30 million in February, but the prospective buyer ghosted them after the pandemic hit. “They didn’t even say, ‘We’re interested in a lower level.’ They kind of just disappeared,” Shalom said.
Over the course of his career, Shalom has been involved in the sale of 260 properties valued at more than $4 billion, according to Avison Young.
Shalom spent the first few months of the pandemic in New Jersey, but has since returned to his East Village apartment. “My roommate bribed me to come back to the city with a dog,” Shalom said. Apparently, it was worth it. “He’s awesome. He sleeps by my feet all day while I work.”
