Avery Silverstein, 34

Few advisory teams can hold a candle to the dynamism and might of Newmark’s capital markets team, and Avery Silverstein plays a critical role in its success. 

After completing roughly $30 billion in deals with the Spies-Harmon team over the past 14 years, she’s a seasoned deal-maker, managing relationships and making headlines.

Silverstein interned for Adam Spies and Doug Harmon, now Newmark’s co-heads of capital markets, in her junior year in college when she was trying to figure out what she wanted to do.  Her parents were doctors, but one of her older brothers works in real estate — C&W’s Ethan Silverstein — so she decided to take  a closer look at the advisory side of the business. “That first summer was a crash course in New York City real estate, and it was amazing,” Silverstein said. “It was a massive learning curve for me, but I quickly realized I’d found something I really liked, and a team that I was very  thankful to be on.” 

As her time with her team progressed, Silverstein found herself appreciating how much she was learning, and how quickly. “In one year, I’d done hotels, multifamily and office deals, ranging from $50 million to $1 billion,” Silverstein said. “I looked back and I said, ‘Wow, if anyone gave me something to value right now — an office building, a hotel, anything in New York City — I know I could confidently do it.’ ” 

By 2015, Silverstein added the $5.5 billion sale of Peter Cooper Stuyvesant Town and the $1.8 billion sale of the Crown Building to her resume. And,  when her team moved to C&W in 2016, it shrank from 40 to just seven, and Silverstein found herself taking on a much bigger role. In the pitch meeting for the recap of a five-asset, $1 billion AvalonBay portfolio, Silverstein realized she knew the assets inside out, had run all the numbers, and was leading the meeting. “That was one of the situations where I finally woke up and realized how much I knew and how much value I was adding,” she said. 

During her time at Newmark, Silverstein’s deal sheet has included the $1.1 billion Park Avenue Plaza recapitalization, the $541 million sale of 35 Hudson Yards to Mori Trust Company, and serving as a lead team member in the $33 billion sale of Signature Bank’s real estate loan book.

It’s not all hard work, though.

“The other part of all this is, we have a lot of fun in this team,” Silverstein said. “We’re working on massive deals, and the industry itself is fun, but this team?  They really make it fun.”