By GREGORY ZELLER //
The best and brightest of the regional commercial real estate industry have received their just desserts. There were hors d’oeuvres, too.
Food, fun and the fine-tuned brokering of critical infrastructure projects all shined Wednesday night at The Lannin in East Meadow’s Eisenhower Park, where the Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island held its Annual Meeting & Holiday Party.
The yearly event celebrated leaders who made “significant contributions to the region’s commercial real estate community” over the past year, according to CIBS, with society members, colleagues and friends coming together to honor out-of-the-box thinking, emerging leadership and outstanding client services.
Commercial Industrial Brokers Society of Long Island President Ralph Benzakein praised the annual awards soiree as a salute to the power of innovation and community spirit.
Ralph Benzakein: Inspirational event.
“It’s always inspiring to celebrate the members who elevate our profession through their leadership, expertise and commitment to community,” Benzakein noted.
The evening’s highest honor, the 2025 President’s Award, went to attorney Peter Curry, real estate and economic development partner at Uniondale-based Farrell Fritz. Curry, a board member at the Stony Brook-based Real Estate Institute of Long Island, was recognized for his service as CIBS general counsel and advisor – a decades-long run that’s helped shape the society’s professional acumen and sterling reputation.
Curry – whose career as a specialty commercial real estate attorney has focused on bond financings, lease transactions and large-scale economic development across Greater New York – said he was “surprised and deeply honored” to receive the annual meeting’s crowning award.
“CIBS has long been a pillar of collaboration and professionalism within the Long Island commercial real estate community,” the attorney noted. “To be recognized by peers and colleagues is both humbling and meaningful.”
Other awards included the prestigious Associate of the Year Award, presented to Andrea Tsoukalas Curto, a partner at Uniondale-based Forchelli Deegan Terrana, where she concentrates on zoning, environmental, land-use and municipal-law matters. Curto was honored for her dedication to the industry and active contributions to CIBS W, a society subcommittee promoting leadership and professional-development opportunities for women across Long Island’s commercial real estate sector.
Andrea Tsoukalas Curto: Empowering attorney.
The society also bestowed three “Rising Star” awards, spotlighting what CIBS called “exceptional promise” in young real estate professionals.
Brian Weigold, a broker at the Melville office of Jones Lang LaSalle, earned the Office Real Estate Rising Star Award. Chicago-based JLL is knee-deep in multiple Long Island developments, including JLL Capital Markets’ recent brokering of a $114.2 million construction loan for 214 Main Owner LLC, a spinoff of Farmingdale-based Nord Development Group planning a multifamily residential development in Patchogue.
Senior Associate Broker Jonathan Blake of Melville-based CBRE Group was named Industrial Rising Star, while Angel Cordero – a Long Island native and junior broker in the White Plains office of Georgia-based The Shopping Center Group – was named Retail Rising Star.
The high caliber of the 2025 awards recipients proves that Long Island commercial real estate is in very good hands – and will be for years to come, according to Benzakein.
“This year’s honorees represent the very best of CIBS and the future of commercial real estate on Long Island,” the society president added.
