One of our most requested guests, David Greaney is the Chief Executive Officer of Synergy, a Boston-based real estate investment and management company that he founded in 2003. Synergy owns and operates over 30 commercial assets in the Greater Boston area, totaling nearly 7 million square feet. Over 500 companies, retailers, and organizations occupy space in the Synergy-owned portfolio.

Greaney has played a pivotal role in shaping Boston’s economy and downtown landscape, recently leading transformative acquisitions such as 99 High Street, 101 Arch Street, and 1 Liberty Square. His vision for integrating investment, asset management, leasing, construction, property management, accounting, and hospitality has positioned Synergy as a leader in delivering tenant-focused, amenity-driven spaces that consistently outperform market benchmarks.

Beyond commercial real estate, Greaney is deeply invested in Boston’s hospitality scene, with ownership in over a dozen restaurants that bring vibrancy, foot traffic, and jobs to the city’s core. He also works closely with Governor Healey’s Administration to address Massachusetts’ housing crisis, focusing on adaptive reuse opportunities.

Active in civic and industry leadership, Greaney serves on the boards of NAIOP Massachusetts and the Downtown Boston Alliance. Since relocating from Ireland in 1995, he has raised millions for philanthropic causes on both sides of the Atlantic, including Bridge Over Troubled Waters and The Ireland Funds. Greaney has received many accolades for his leadership in Boston, including being recognized for two consecutive years in the Boston Business Journal’s “Power50: Movement Makers” list, and Synergy has received the Commercial Broker’s Association “Landlord of the Year” Award.

Greaney is a graduate of the University College Dublin. Prior to founding Synergy, he worked at Harvard Management Company and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Greaney resides on the South Shore of Massachusetts with his wife and seven children. In his free time, he enjoys traveling and playing golf.

From Mike & Tom: This was a fun one for us! Dave Greaney is a legendary investor in the Boston market, and in this interview he shares with our listeners a rare, behind-the-curtain look at Synergy. From Dave’s serendipitous beginnings in the US on a summer work visa, through his early investing lessons and the evolution of Synergy as one of Boston’s largest and most active commercial landlords, we covered it all in this candid conversation. Thank you to Dave and the Synergy team for sharing your story, and for your continued friendship, collaboration and partnership with our Newmark Boston office.

For more information on Synergy, visit: https://synergyboston.com/

CoreyFest 2025! We hope you will consider joining us for our 11th Annual CoreyFest on Saturday, November 11th at House of Blues Boston. One of the flagship events of the Corey C. Griffin Foundation, CoreyFest this year will feature local favorites Dalton & the Sheriffs and headliner Dustin Lynch. We are expecting an 11th consecutive sold-out crowd, so please reach out to us today for sponsorship opportunities or visit https://www.coreycgriffinfoundation.org/initiatives-and-events/coreyfest/ for tickets and more information. Thank you to our clients, friends and listeners for your support of Corey’s Kids!

Please share with clients, colleagues and friends and thanks for tuning in!

Tom Greeley

Ed Pitoniak is Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of VICI Properties Inc., an S&P 500® experiential real estate investment trust that owns one of the largest portfolios of market-leading gaming, hospitality and entertainment destinations, including Caesars Palace Las Vegas, MGM Grand and the Venetian Resort Las Vegas, three of the most iconic entertainment facilities on the Las Vegas Strip. VICI Properties owns 93 experiential assets across a geographically diverse portfolio consisting of 54 gaming properties and 39 other experiential properties across the United States and Canada. The portfolio is comprised of approximately 127 million square feet and features approximately 60,300 hotel rooms and approximately 500 restaurants, bars, nightclubs and sportsbooks. Its properties are occupied by industry-leading gaming, leisure and hospitality operators under long-term, triple-net lease agreements. VICI Properties has a growing array of real estate and financing partnerships with leading non-gaming experiential operators, including Bowlero, Cabot, Canyon Ranch, Chelsea Piers, Great Wolf Resorts, and Kalahari Resorts and Conventions. VICI Properties also owns four championship golf courses and 33 acres of undeveloped and underdeveloped land adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip. VICI Properties’ goal is to create the highest quality and most productive experiential real estate portfolio through a strategy of partnering with the highest quality experiential place makers and operators.

Previously, Mr. Pitoniak served as Vice Chairman of Realterm, a private equity real estate manager. From 2006 to 2019 Mr. Pitoniak served as an independent director at Ritchie Brothers (NYSE: RBA), the world’s largest auctioneers of construction equipment. In April 2014, Mr. Pitoniak became Managing Director of InnVest, a publicly listed REIT, responsible for recapitalizing the REIT and transitioning its management function from an external, third-party management model, to an internal management model. He then served as Chairman from June 2015 to August 2016, when the REIT was sold and taken private. He also served as a director of Regal Lifestyle Communities (TSE: RLC), a Canadian seniors housing real estate owner and operator, from 2012 until its sale in 2015. Mr. Pitoniak retired in 2009 from the position of President and Chief Executive Officer and Director of bcIMC Hospitality Group, a hotel property and brand ownership entity (formerly a public income trust called Canadian Hotel Income Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (“CHIP”)), where he was employed from 2004 to 2009. As Chief Executive Officer of CHIP, he led the company to four consecutive years of total return leadership among Canadian hotel REITs, and then to a sale in 2007. Mr. Pitoniak was also a member of CHIP’s Board of Trustees before it went private. Prior to joining CHIP, Mr. Pitoniak was a Senior Vice-President at Intrawest Corporation, a ski and golf resort operator and developer, for nearly eight years. Before Intrawest, Mr. Pitoniak spent nine years with Times Mirror Magazines, where he served as editor-in-chief and associate publisher with Ski Magazine. Mr. Pitoniak has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College.

This was a fascinating discussion for us, and Ed shares with our listeners a highlight real of business and real estate anecdotes picked up throughout his illustrious career. We appreciate Ed spending time with us and are very excited to share this with our Good Dirt community. We look forward to following VICI’s continued growth and enjoying their many amazing properties!

For more information on VICI Properties and its growing portfolio of experiential real estate, visit: www.viciproperties.com

As referenced: In Memoriam, Jack Connors

Todd S. Rich is a Co-Founder, Partner and Head of Real Estate at Declaration Partners and oversees Declaration’s real estate investment activity. Todd brings over 20 years of real estate investing and operating experience including acquisitions, dispositions, development, leasing, and management of portfolios involving over $20 billion of institutional quality real estate.

Declaration Partners is a private investment firm that seeks to be a value-added capital partner and strategic resource to founders & entrepreneurs, management teams, and asset owners. Anchored by the family office of private equity veteran and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, Declaration invests on behalf of family offices and like-minded institutional investors. Declaration’s approach emphasizes partnership born from its family office heritage while seeking to achieve favorable long-term outcomes with strong alignment. Declaration has approximately $2.2 billion in assets under management across its private investment strategies, which include tactical growth equity, real estate, GP solutions, and other opportunistic strategies. The firm was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in New York with an office in the Washington, DC area.

Prior to forming Declaration Partners, Todd was a Partner at The JBG Companies and a member of its Investment and Management Committees, where he was involved in strategic efforts culminating in the creation of JBG SMITH Properties as a public REIT (NYSE: JBGS). Prior to joining The JBG Companies, Todd was a Managing Director at Tishman Speyer where he was responsible for the business activities of the Washington, DC region and worked in Tishman Speyer’s Chicago, London, and New York offices.

Todd holds a Bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Princeton University, and was a US Fulbright Scholar. Todd serves as a board member of the SED Center and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Washington, and is a former board member of the Economic Club of Washington.

We really enjoyed our discussion with Todd, who is as well-liked as he is respected in the national investment market. Todd shared with us how each stop in his journey equipped him to eventually launch Declaration Partners, a unique opportunity to start a new platform with a bona fide legend of the private equity industry, David Rubenstein. Todd’s perspective on the market and his overview of Declaration’s thoughtful approach will be an interesting listen for all in the real estate and investment management arenas.

For more info on Declaration Partners, please visit: https://declarationpartners.com/

Please share with clients, colleagues and friends and thanks for tuning in!

Tom Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasgreeley/

tom.greeley@nmrk.com

Mike Greeley

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgreeley1

Michael.greeley@nmrk.com