Answer extracted from the Coffee & Cap Rates: Commercial Real Estate Podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How did Ariel Property Advisors originate as a boutique commercial real estate advisory firm?
Shkury started at Massey Knuckle Realty in 2002 and became partner within two years, meeting his future co-founders Victor Sozio, Ivan Petrovich, and Mike Tortorici at that firm. Recognizing that Upper Manhattan and the Bronx had limited market intelligence coverage in the early 2000s, they became the dominant information source in that region. Believing they could scale that advantage citywide, the four founded Ariel Property Advisors on January 10, 2011, right after the global financial crisis.
In the early years of the 2000s, New York commercial real estate was heavily concentrated in Midtown Manhattan. If you weren't operating in the central business districts, you were essentially invisible to the broader market—no data, no coverage, no narrative. Shkury and his peers at Massey Knuckle Realty saw an opening: they became obsessively focused on building the most reliable information source for the Upper Manhattan and Bronx territories.
This wasn't simply a geographic focus; it was a deliberate strategy to own a niche through superior market intelligence. As Shkury explains in the episode, they realized over time that their information advantage could be leveraged far beyond their original territory. If they could centralize their data-first approach and expand it across all five boroughs, they had the potential to build something significant at the citywide level.
The founding date—January 10, 2011—was precisely timed at the recovery phase following the global financial crisis. The market was stabilizing, liquidity was returning, and demand for reliable advisory services was rising. Shkury recalls moving into a new office space with his three partners and beginning to build the firm from scratch: hunting for listings, closing early deals, and establishing Ariel's reputation as a data-driven, information-first advisory boutique.
"We felt within time that we can do more than just Upper Manhattan, the Bronx, which was our territory, and we felt that we can centralize the company around that information and take it to the next level citywide."
Shimon Shkury — Founding Partner, Ariel Property Advisors. Shkury launched his commercial real estate career in 2002 at Massey Knuckle Realty, where he rose to partner in just two years and built deep expertise in market intelligence and advisory services. In 2011, he co-founded Ariel Property Advisors with Victor Sozio, Ivan Petrovich, and Mike Tortorici, using their collective knowledge of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx as the foundation for a citywide advisory platform serving affordable housing, rent-stabilized residential, development, and capital markets clients.
One intriguing detail from the conversation is how the firm grew from those initial founders in 2011 to 65 employees and seven partners by their 15th anniversary—a testament to the scalability of their model—while the firm's culture remained centered on collaboration rather than traditional competitive siloes.
Key takeaways
- Shkury's career foundation at Massey Knuckle Realty (2002–2004) brought him into contact with three co-founders who shared his vision for data-driven advisory.
- Early market gap in Upper Manhattan and Bronx coverage became the competitive moat and strategic focus that differentiated the firm.
- The firm was founded on January 10, 2011, during the post-financial-crisis recovery when demand for reliable market intelligence was rising.
- The founding strategy relied on centralizing and scaling their regional information advantage into a citywide commercial real estate advisory platform.
See also
What major portfolio sales in rent-stabilized Brooklyn residential property signaled market stress in 2025–2026?
Major sell-offs included the Pinnacle portfolio sale with a significant Brooklyn portion, and Lethrax's sale of a $30+ million rent-stabilized portfolio.
How are smaller free-market and tax-protected residential buildings performing in emerging Brooklyn neighborhoods in 2026?
Smaller free-market and tax-protected buildings are trading well in up-and-coming locations in Brooklyn, contributing to continued activity in the second quarter.
What affordable housing and residential development activity has been recorded in Brooklyn's development sector year-to-date?
In Brooklyn alone, $130 million in real estate development transactions have been completed this year covering affordable housing, condominiums, and mixed-use properties.