Michael Burak
Managing Director, Helmsley Spear LLC
New York, NY 10017
Phone (212) 508-7462
Mobile (917) 349-1476
Property Types
Office, Retail
Markets
Long Island (New York), New York City
Bio
Michael A. Burak serves as a managing director at Helmsley Spear, LLC and is a 40-year veteran of real estate ownership, sales, leasing, development and property management. His deep understanding of the subtleties of real estate was honed over these many years. Prior to joining Helmsley Spear, he was an associate broker at the Bloom Real Estate Group. For most of his career, he was the principal of a property management and leasing firm based in New York City which invested in and managed office, residential, and industrial properties in New York City, Boston, and Providence, RI.
Mr. Burak was the first person to open an American commercial real estate firm in South Korea and still maintains close ties to the Korean business community here and overseas. He was honored by the South Korean government for his work on the new 69,000-seat soccer stadium as a sub-contractor for Samsung. He has strong ties to some of the major South Korean companies and has completed several retail leases in NYC for Korean companies. He also has relationships with several major Japanese companies and the firm has an exclusive with a Japanese hotel company called First Cabin that is expanding into the USA market.
In the 1980s, as general partner, Mr. Burak purchased and operated several investments including the following:
· The Northeastern corner of Fifth Avenue and 42 nd Street, and created an assemblage which he later sold. During his ownership, he was also the leasing and managing agent.
· In Boston, he converted 145 South Street, then a leather factory, into office lofts. At 8 Winter Street in downtown Boston, he renovated a 12-story office building. At 50 Eagle Street, in Providence, he converted a textile mill into artist lofts.
· In Jersey City at 7-11 Tonnele Avenue, he converted a hotel into 82 apartments. At 33-01 Queens Boulevard, Queens, NY, he converted the Thomas’ English muffin factory into lofts and offices.
After all these projects were completed, they sold. Mr. Burak has negotiated over 1,000 leases with an aggregate value in excess of $160 million comprising over 1.2 million square feet. He has sold over $200 million of commercial properties including what is now the Pod Hotel at 145 East 39th Street.
Education
