Shimon Shkury, Victor Sozio, Michael Tortorici and Sean Kelly

Ariel Property Advisors is entering its 15th year in existence and continues to grow its platform to new heights.

Across investments sales, capital services and research advisory, the team that includes Shimon Shkury, Victor Sozio, Michael Tortorici and Sean Kelly has executed $1.17 billion in deals across 100 individual transactions over the past year.

The firm has managed to do that while growing its influence nationally in partnership with Global Real Estate Advisors.

“In New York City, we see tremendous opportunity, but it’s very sector specific,” Shkury said. “We’re doing a lot of work in [affordable housing] and the interesting part is that you’re trying to solve our clients’ problems by finding solutions, and the solutions are out there. The rent-stabilized market is challenging because of the growth that we’ve seen in interest rates, collections and other items, but there is a bench of buyers even for that product type.”

Ariel also helps its clients solve capital constraints through leveraging resources from city, state and federal governments or connecting them with buyers. Its investment sales volume in 2025 was about $786 million in deals across 58 transactions, and capital services accounted for $390 million in volume across 48 deals.

While rent-stabilized and affordable housing are still challenging markets due largely to policy constraints, the demand for market-rate apartments and for office-to-residential conversions is strong, partly thanks to what has happened on the political front. That includes the conversion incentive 467m.

“New York City today is not just one market, so, even if you look at a sector like multifamily, you’re looking at three different asset classes,” Shkury said. “When we financed in Manhattan, we saw that the office-to-residential conversions are taking off because of the 467m tax abatement that came from the housing policy in 2024, so development is doing well.”