Max Kreinces, 23 

“I quickly learned how to connect with tenants and how to talk with landlords — having that experience was invaluable to me,” Kreinces said. “It’s crazy that I even got chosen for this award because if I was at one of the larger companies I wouldn’t be as top-of-mind as I am.”

With a particular eye for fashion and brands — he was voted best dressed in high school, after all — Kreinces has been able to help small businesses get off the ground in areas such as the Lower East Side, where he negotiated a ​​1,100-square-foot lease for Kathleen Deleasa to house her Sora vintage clothing store at 73 Orchard Street.

The first brick-and-mortar location for Cinq a Sept, a brand that sells its wares at Bloomingdale’s and Saks Fifth Avenue, in 2,200 square feet at 108 Wooster Street in SoHo was another deal Kreinces recently struck.

Getting into the field a month after graduation from GW, Kreinces said the decision to go into retail leasing during such an uncertain time for the industry was tough. But he says he’s not prone to cynicism and neither is Singer, who launched the firm in the midst of the COVID health crisis that was bringing the leasing industry to its knees.

“I had a lot of my friends say to me, ‘Wow, it’s kind of risky going into a real estate job that has to do with retail at this time.’ But I’ve always been an optimistic person, and Brandon has always pushed that optimism on us,” Kreinces said. “Retail isn’t dead; retail is just changing, and Mona is going to help those evolving retailers adapt to the changing times.”

Though it was tough at first in a commission-based job, Kreinces says the gamble has paid off. —M.H.