OUR PEOPLE

Jon A. Karnick started his real estate career at the firm of Alexander Summer, L.L.C. in 1998 preceding the sale of his Manhattan based restaurant. After several successful years the firm became affiliated with CRESA Partners, and Mr. Karnick became a Vice President focused on national corporate services. In 2002 Mr. Karnick joined Newmark Knight Frank as a Director of the New Jersey office for the next five years. In January of 2007 Mr. Karnick joined the newly formed Newark based partnership of Assurance Realty Group, L.L.C..

Mr. Karnick is a corporate real estate specialist, and is focused on delivering clients brokerage and advisory services, from strategic planning through administrative services, on a national and international basis.

Mr. Karnick has completed transactions on behalf of numerous prominent tenants and owners including Fairfield Financial Group; Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company; EMC; Liberty Mutual Insurance; NJ Transit, Lucky Goldstar.; Heritage Management; SPL World Group; Audible; Gann Law Publishing; and Fidelco Realty Group.

Mr. Karnick participates in, and has affiliations with, CoreNet, New Jersey Technology Council, Newark RBP, Project U.S.E., St. Vincent’s Shepards of Youth, and the Biotechnology Councel of New Jersey.

David B. Berkowitz, is the founding principal of Assurance Realty Group, a Newark based real estate leasing, investment sales and advisory company serving private, institutional and municipal clients.

Mr. Berkowitz has managed and leased large-scale real estate investments and development projects for 23 years. He began his real estate career with the Prudential Realty Group in New Jersey where he was responsible for the leasing, acquisition, asset management and development of office properties in Northern and Central New Jersey. He later managed Prudential’s regional mall portfolio where he was responsible for the development, leasing, management, renovation and expansion of a nationwide portfolio of wholly owned and joint venture retail and entertainment properties. From 1996 to 1999, he assisted Prudential in disposing of its entire $7 billion equity real estate portfolio, participating directly in transactions for all property types and achieving capital gains of over $2 billion in the process.

After 14 years with Prudential, he was retained by the company as an independent consultant to advise it on social investments, including urban redevelopment projects, and to provide real estate and economic development assistance to the City of Newark, New Jersey. He has also been actively providing independent leasing and advisory services to other private clients in Newark and elsewhere.

Prior to his career in real estate, Mr. Berkowitz was a Senior Accountant for Price Waterhouse in Stamford, Connecticut, where his client base included real estate development entities, the hospitality industry, commercial banks, municipalities, manufacturing, insurance and not-for-profit organizations.

Mr. Berkowitz is an officer of the Board of Trustees for the Newark Arts Council and has served in various capacities for the following not-for-profit entities: St. Joseph’s School for the Blind, Jersey City; Make a Wish Foundation, New Jersey Chapter; Ice Hockey in Harlem, NYC; New Jersey Aids Research Initiative, Newark; United Cerebral Palsy, NYC; The Newark Museum; The Boys and Girls Clubs of America, United Way, Essex Chapter.

Mr. Baker is the Executive Vice President of the Assurance Realty Group, LLC in Newark, NJ. He has specialized in the leasing and sales of office properties for more than 30 years in New Jersey and throughout the United States. Many of the signature properties in the New Jersey have been either leased or sold by Mr. Baker. He has represented many Fortune 500 companies as a tenant representative in addition to acting as an exclusive leasing agent for institutional owners and private developers, including MetLife, Prudential, M.Alfieri, Brandywine Realty Trust, The Mandelbaum Family and The Witkoff Group/Lehman Brothers.

Mr. Baker was born and grew up in Newark, NJ and began his real estate career in New York City in 1969. In 1971 he opened a New Jersey office and eventually founded a New Jersey company, Baker-Merin Associates in 1975. His firm specialized solely in office leasing and grew to a 25-person, 2-office firm, until its sale to Cushman & Wakefield in 1983.

Mr. Baker also worked in executive positions at Insignia/ESG, CB Richard Ellis and Newmark Knight Frank and during his term at those firms he was consistently one of the Top Producers.

He is a past Chairman of the Young Men/Womens’ Real Estate Association and is a Member of the Advisory Board of the NJIT School of Architecture.

Steven N. Muller has over 20 years experience Real Estate Industry, as a Broker/Agent, Investor, and Consultant.

Mr. Muller's recent experience has been Office, Retail, and Industrial Leasing in NJ, and also Office and Retail Leasing in Manhattan.

His prior position before that was National Sales Director for Jab Real Estate Investment Group based out of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Mr. Muller was instrumental in the acquisition and disposition of companies portfolio over 100m dollars worth of Multi-Family Properties all over the United States. In addition he was responsible for sales of over $5 million dollars worth of single family homes.

Lastly in that position he managed a sales force for NJ and Indiana.

Mr. Muller is also a highly accomplished entrepreneur, with a track record of generating multimillion-dollar business growth and engineering red-to-black profit turnarounds. Results-focused and quality-driven professional with over a decade of experience in business and operational development positions. He also has demonstrated consistent achievement of objectives, strong sales, and service skills, and dedication to organizational goals.

Lastly, Mr. Muller is a Sleep Disorder Expert and currently owns 2 Web Based businesses- www.sleepmanagementconsultants.com and www.sleepconsultantsblog.com. These website are geared for people to help overcome, and cope with their sleep disorders.

Mr. Muller is a licensed Real Estate agent in New York, New Jersey, and Florida.

Marshall Cooper, is a Newark Native with more than 30 years of redevelopment and property management experience. Prior to his career with Assurance Realty Group Marshall worked as a development specialist in Kansas City Missouri, developing loan programs to assist in the development of multi-family housing projects.

In 1987 Marshall returned to the City of Newark where he served as the manager of Property Management and Director of Redevelopment through July of 2007.

Mr. Cooper was responsible for the overall administration of a comprehensive redevelopment program including the selection of urban renewal sites, tenant relocation, real estate acquisition, and redevelopment. Over his tenure with the City of Newark Marshall directed and negotiated over $1 billion dollars in redevelopment projects including the site assemblage for the New Jersey Performing Arts center and the Prudential Arena. He also served as Commissioner for the planning board from 2002-2006.

Mr. Cooper negotiated $50 million dollars in sales transactions through the auction of surplus municipal property. He has also been recognized for his ability to expeditiously relocate tenants in designated redevelopment areas.

Joel Freiser has been a real estate and economic development executive since 1970. He held a variety of public and private sector positions, including Economic Development Specialist-U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Director, Department of Planning and Economic Development for Essex County, New Jersey; Financial Service Representative-Carteret Savings Bank, Director of Economic Development for The New York City Partnership, Deputy and Acting Executive Director of the Newark Economic Development Corporation; Coordinator of Urban Initiatives and Director of the Newark Office of the Urban Enterprise Zone.

Mr. Freiser joined Assurance Realty Group in August 2007.

Mr. Freiser has facilitated industrial, commercial and mixed use real estate development project transactions on behalf of the City of Newark with numerous prominent tenants, owners and developers including the City of Newark, Rutgers University, American Campus Communities, the United States General Services Administration, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Edison Properties, Hartz Mountain Industries, Matrix Development Group, The Home Depot, IDT and Fidelco Realty Group.

Mr. Freiser participates in, and has affiliations with the International Council of Shopping Centers, the American Planning Association and the American Council for Economic Development.