Bob Knakal<\/a> of BKREA, whose online handle has 50,400 followers.<\/p>\nIn a recent X post that fits the zeitgeist of the event, Knakal wrote, \u201cWe are not in the real estate business. We are in the information and relationship business. The better your information \u2026 the stronger your relationships \u2026 the more trust you build. And trust is what drives every great deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll miss Tepman\u2019s neighbor, comedian Zarna Garg, who performed a short set last year, but will enjoy Tao Group chow and a rearranged set up overlooking the East River.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/210568780_Peak_Interior5_Credit_AlexStaniloff.jpg\")
A table at Hudson Yards\u2019 Peak restaurant overlooking the city. Alex Staniloff<\/p>\n
Sponsors like Crexi, Agora, Placer.ai and the ICSC help cover the cost of cocktails and hors d\u2019oeuvres for the nearly 200 fashionably dressed guests, most of whom live elsewhere and come from as far away as England and Australia, with big factions from Florida and Texas \u2014 and some in cowboy hats.<\/p>\n
A Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader, Madi Bremer, now also a CBRE retail associate, will be there, cheering on Detroit Lions offensive tackle Jamarco Jones, also a real estate investor, and Chris Rodriguez Jr. \u2014 nicknamed C-Rod \u2014 a running back who just signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Meanwhile, Tesho Akindele, a former Canadian national soccer player and MLS star, is now working for Jamestown.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are reaching people, and they meet at the gala and do business because of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gala co-host Don Tepman<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the real estate capital of the world and where the capital is raised,\u201d said Tepman. \u201cIt\u2019s great networking, and you are able to meet people and gain market knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tepman, whose nationwide strip mall company is TownCentre Capital, said his biggest challenge is finding deals that make sense, so his cartoon and social media moniker, StripMallGuy, have become the answer to getting in front of brokers.<\/p>\n
But while he owns 45 strip centers around the country, he does not want to compete in the city, which he said is \u201ca market full of very talented sharks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, he and his team roam the country, looking for deals to buy and tenants to place in those he already owns.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost brokers put up a sign and wait, but we are proactive,\u201d Tepman explained. \u201cLet\u2019s say we are missing a good hair salon or pizza place and, within a one-hour drive, through FedEx letters and social media, we find great operators to fill those gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Tepman, social media has created both an \u201cincredible deal flow\u201d as well as a recruiting tool, and the gala is a big part of that. \u201cYou are reaching people, and they meet at the gala and do business because of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Twitter became X, neighborhood strip center owner Don Tepman thought it would be fun if his social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1489,14821,4208,9,56,63,65,64,1491,17534],"class_list":{"0":"post-206612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-commercial-real-estate","9":"tag-galas","10":"tag-hudson-yards","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-ny","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nyc-headlines","15":"tag-nyc-news","16":"tag-real-estate","17":"tag-x-formerly-twitter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Attendees](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cre-3rd-annual-real-estate-126054665.jpg\")
Crexi, Agora, Placer.ai and the ICSC are helping to cover the cost of cocktails and hors d\u2019oeuvres for the 200 guests, Joe Torres Photography<\/p>\n