Adan Elias Kornfeld, 29

“I enjoyed working and I liked to feel that I was making something,” Elias Kornfeld said. “That self-starter nature, work ethic and relying on myself is what brought me down this channel.”

But real estate took over after he saw his cousin jump into the industry while Elias Kornfeld was at Florida International. So he decided to head back to New York and get in the game. He hit the ground running in his first gig — as a broker focused on southern Brooklyn for TerraCRG.

“I was working 15 hours a day, making 120 phone calls and couch-surfing just so I could be close to the office,” he said.

He did stints at Colliers and Meridian Capital before he joined Long Island-based Green Holland, where he’s in charge of the day-to-day brokerage activities, focused on off-market deals.

Throughout his career, Elias Kornfeld has worked on more than $600 million worth of investment sales deals — including the $195 million sale of 19 West 44th Street in 2017 — and last year worked on a 180,000-square-foot deal in Brooklyn, one of 2020’s largest industrial transactions in New York. (Kornfeld declined to provide more information on it.) He’s also started to dip his toe in the South Florida market at the behest of his clients looking to invest there.

Elias Kornfeld grew up in Glen Cove, N.Y., and had a “very unconventional childhood.” He was born at home, followed a macrobiotic diet, and vacationed in Buddhist retreats with his parents.

“Where other kids were going to Disney World, I was upstate on a silent retreat drinking tea,” he said. “Which I’m very grateful for. My parents are incredible.”

The Chelsea resident spends his free time cooking, hiking, writing music and spending time with his 2-year-old pup, Toby.—N.R.