Salvatore Campofranco has over thirty years of experience in financing and operations of commercial real estate. He has been a member of executive teams of major real estate companies through the toughest cycles in the industry including the recession of 1991-1995, and the technology industry bust of 2000. He is the founder and managing partner of Luzern Associates LLC (“Luzern”) a real estate investment firm. Luzern through affiliated entities has invested in approximately $146 million of real estate assets and raised approximately $31 million of equity. Mr. Campofranco has extensive experience in the development of office, mixed use and residential projects.
From May 1996 to January 2007 Mr. Campofranco was an executive of Reckson Associates Realty Corp (“Reckson”). Since 2003 he held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for the company. As COO of Reckson he was responsible for formulation of operating strategies and execution thereof for five business units of the company, including the construction and development group, covering operations for the tri-state region including New York City. He was a member of the Executive Committee, which set strategy for the company and co-chairperson of the Operating Committee, which was a key communication and personnel development platform for the entire senior and executive management team of Reckson. Reckson was one of the largest publicly traded real estate companies in the tri-state region with over 300 employees and 103 properties encompassing 20.3 million square feet of Class A office space. The company was sold in January 2007 to SL Green Realty. During his eleven-year tenure with Reckson, the company grew from a $250 million dollar business to over $6 billion dollars. From 1996 to 2003 he was the Senior Vice President and Managing Director for the Westchester/ Connecticut Division of the company. During that period this division grew from 800,000 rsf to over 6.6 million rsf under ownership and was responsible for 25% of the company’s operating income.
From 1988 to 1996 Mr. Campofranco was a Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Towermarc Corporation, located in Boston MA. a full service real estate firm which developed and operated Class A office buildings in Massachusetts, Tennessee and Florida. Towermarc grew rapidly and provided an attractive return to its investors’. Mr. Campofranco and the executive team of Towermarc steered the company through the most difficult real estate recession in modern times (1991- 1995) providing a positive return to its owners upon the sale of the company in 1996 to Highwoods Properties.
Campofranco graduated from St. John’s University, New York with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and is a CPA in New York State. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute, and is a director emeritus for the Waterside School in Stamford as well as a member of the Parents’ Committee for Middlebury College (2006-2013).