2024 Best Real Estate Deals: Announcing the Dealmakers and Rising Stars honorees

Lisa Dukart I Jan 29, 2025

Updated Jan 29, 2025 3:31pm EST

Each year the Philadelphia Business Journal honors the Best Real Estate Deals, Dealmakers and Rising Stars in the region.

The Dealmakers and Rising Stars categories recognize the people behind impactful deals and projects throughout Greater Philadelphia – including lawyers, brokers, developers and those otherwise involved.

This year, 12 individuals were selected as the 2024 Dealmakers and Rising Stars.

Honorees were determined by an outside panel of judges from individuals nominated by the public with oversight from our editorial board. This year’s judges are:

• Brian Edmonds, principal, Greenwood CRE

• Roland Kassis, managing partner, Kassis & Co.

• Rose Penny, market research director, Colliers

• Clint Randall, vice president of economic development, Center City District

• Diane Weinberg, Philadelphia managing director, CBRE

  
  

The honorees include six Dealmakers and six Rising Stars. The Dealmaker of the Year and Rising Star of the Year will both be announced at a cocktail party taking place March 27 at The Lucy and in a special print edition of the Business Journal on March 28.

For both categories, judges considered the scope of each nominee’s work throughout his or her career, with a specific focus on deals undertaken in the past 12 to 18 months and their subsequent impact on the community. There are no restrictions on what constitutes a Dealmaker, while Rising Stars must be 35 years of age or younger.

In addition to these individuals, the judges also selected the 2024 Best Real Estate Deals, which were revealed Tuesday and can be found here.

This year we are recognizing projects and deals in nine categories: Affordable Housing; Apartments; Education; Environmental, Social and Governance; Health Care & Life Sciences; Hospitality; Industrial; Office; and Retail.

The Deal of the Year will also be revealed at the event in March.

Below are the 2024 Dealmakers and Rising Star honorees, listed alphabetically.

Dealmakers

• Joshua Broderson, partner, Blank Rome

• Paula Charles, first vice president of leasing, PREIT

• Billy Creagh, broker, National Realty Commercial

• Kelly CG Edwards, manager, real estate operations, SEPTA

• Alexandra Hill, partner, Klehr Harrison Havey Branzburg

• Timothy Pennington, partner and senior vice president, Binswanger

Rising Stars

• Ryan Guittare, managing director, Newmark

• Greg Katz, co-founder and principal, Atlis Real Estate Partners

• Annie Portner, interior designer, Gensler

• Michael Rabinowitz, executive director, Tactix Real Estate Advisors

• Jordan Reaves, controller, Mosaic Development Partners

• Gerry Smith, principal, Blueprint Commercial