Who’s Who in Commercial Real Estate Brokers

In commercial real estate, as in any industry, there are titans that stand out above the rest. In the latest in our Who’s Who series, we bring you the 16 brokers that peers say have landed the deals that filled the office and industrial space needs of the businesses that drive Long Island’s economy.

They are fiercely competitive but share in a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie. Many have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams but at the same time are committed to contributing their wealth and time to the community. These brokers – many of whom have weathered a number of economic cycles – are leading their 400 or so peers in adapting to the Island’s changing economic and real estate landscape.

Richard Cohen
Ashlind Properties

Richard Cohen, president of Hauppauge-based Ashlind Properties, got his start in commercial real estate in the late 1970s managing apartment complexes in the boroughs of New York City.

In 1982, he made the move to Long Island, working as a broker for the Lake Success-based real estate services firm Sutton & Edwards. Over the next eight years, Cohen focused on the industrial side of the coin and began establishing relationships that would eventually lead to breaking off on his own.

“I focused my efforts on the Hauppauge market,” he said, mainly in the Vanderbilt Industrial Park, which is now part of the assemblage of industrial parks that make up the Hauppauge Industrial Park, a 1,400 acre complex that is the largest of its kind in the United States.

In 1990, Cohen formed Ashlind, a combination of his daughters’ names, Ashley and Lindsey.

With the assistance of Walter Gross, one of the developers of the Vanderbilt Industrial Park, and several clients including Meadowbrook Distributors, the Long Island distributors of Pepsi, his company began to grow.

That year, Cohen was involved in real estate deals with firms that included Meadowbrook, ELM Freight and American Tissue.

“Those deals put us on the map,” he said.

Since then, Cohen has been a fixture in the Hauppauge industrial market, and is more likely than not involved in any significant deal in the central Suffolk region.

Cohen has remained an independent in a market that is consolidating on a daily basis, with the smaller boutique firms being swallowed up by larger entities that are national, or international, in scope.

But Cohen continues on his own, asserting that the size of his company, essentially Cohen alone, allows him to offer personal customer service, resulting in repeat business with customers that include ELM Freight, Jasco Industries, Corwood Laboratories and New Breed Transportation.

“We’ve grown together with these companies,” he said.

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