Our Team

The Principals of Next Tier bring an average of 30+ years of experience in real estate investment, lending, brokerage and advisory services and asset management to bear on every transaction and opportunity we encounter. 

James F. Coakley

Senior Managing Director

Mr. Coakley is a Founding Principal and focuses on all aspects of NT’s business activities with a special emphasis on Development and Re-development services – with particular emphasis on Data Center build-out logistics. Mr. Coakley applies that specialty focus to situations related to investment assets in portfolio or under management whether in a ground-up development initiative or a Tenant Improvement fit-out for a tenant with raised floor needs. Mr. Coakley brings over 30 years of relevant real estate and Data Center experience to bear on executing NT’s business plan.

Jim started his real estate career in 1981 as a broker in the Washington, DC office of Grubb & Ellis, before entering the development business in 1995 as a Principal in the Washington, DC office of Trammell Crow. Mr. Coakley left Trammell Crow in 2000 to focus 100% of his time on the development and acquisition of mission critical facilities with T-Rex Capital where he worked with other NT Principals until 2006. While at T-Rex, Jim led the company’s acquisition and redevelopment of over 3 million square feet of mission critical facilities.

From 2006 to 2012, Jim led the firm known as Power Loft Services which was later re-branded as Hornbaker group.  While there, Jim – most notably – led the ground up development of a 200,000 sfTier 3 Data Center facility in Manassas, VA in a joint venture with Iron Point Partners which was subsequently sold to COPT.  Mr. Coakley received a BA from Fairfield University.

Kevin J. Reardon

SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR

Mr. Reardon is a Founding Principal and focuses on all aspects of NT’s business activities with a special emphasis on the evaluation, underwriting and management of investment assets – both Data Center / Mission Critical as well as Special Situations.  Mr. Reardon brings nearly 35 years of relevant commercial real estate and Data Center experience to bear on executing on NT’s business plan.  Prior to the formation of the Next Tier HD, Mr. Reardon was a co-founder and Managing Director of Greyfields and a Founder and Principal of Next Tier Equities, a Greyfields affiliate.

While at NT Greyfields, Mr. Reardon ensured that the highest standards were established and maintained for all compliance activities, financial reporting and performance measurement for the company’s investments and the enterprise as a whole.

Immediately prior to forming NT Greyfields, Mr. Reardon spent five years as a Principal and Chief Financial Offer at T-Rex Capital where he oversaw a portfolio of $500 million which included mission critical, data center, residential and commercial office assets. In that capacity, Mr. Reardon was responsible for all financial measurement, performance measurement and compliance requirements for the enterprise and its investments in which multi-layered capital structures were frequently deployed.

Before T-Rex, Mr. Reardon served in similar capacities at UBS-Paine Webber, Northstar Capital and Lazard Frères Real Estate Investors, all of which were focused on real estate principal investing.  In the two latter companies, Mr. Reardon was responsible for the initial establishment of the asset management, accounting, compliance and financial reporting areas of these entities as they were formed and grew to $2.5 billion and $10 billion of assets under management, respectively.

Mr. Reardon obtained a CPA license (New York), received a BS in Accounting - Fordham University, and has been a member firm representative to NCREIF, NAREIM & NAREIT across the years.

David J. Spiewak

SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR

Mr. Spiewak is a Founding Principal and focuses on all aspects of NT’s business activities with a special emphasis on capital raising and leasing and marketing activities. Mr. Spiewak founded NT’s brokerage and consulting business, DJS Group LLC in 2000 with a focus on the Mission Critical landscape. He has represented IT and real estate clients completing transactions throughout Australia, APAC, EMEA, BRIC and North America.

Mr. Spiewak has specialized in the Mission Critical arena since 1997 having spent his career on both the IT and real estate sides of the house. Mr. Spiewak has been involved in over $3 billion worth of real estate transactions, and has been an investor and owner of over three million square feet of mission critical, office and residential real estate throughout his career.

Mr. Spiewak received his BA from Syracuse University and has completed all course work towards a CCIM designation.

Carl Trop

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Mr. Trop joined Next Tier's affiliate - Greyfields in 2007 to impact the areas of sourcing opportunities and attracting new capital.  In that capacity, he sourced direct investment for acquisitions, advisory service assignments and capital raising for a private REIT and a debt opportunity fund.

Over the past 25 years, Mr. Trop has successfully acted across the spectrum of real estate investment, development, finance, asset management and their ancillary requirements.  Mr. Trop has acquired office buildings, apartment complexes and development sites.  In a development capacity, Mr. Trop has built hi-rise condominiums and apartments as well as single family homes.  He has redeveloped for alternative uses- apartments, office and a school.  Mr. Trop brings extensive experience in project development, planning, government interface, design, layout, entitlement, leasing and debt and equity origination and execution.

Mr. Trop is a graduate of the Wharton school of Business, Bachelor of Science class of 1981 and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, 1991, MBA.  Mr. Trop has served as President and as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Wharton Business School of New York.

John O'Rourke

Managing Director

Mr. O'Rourke is a recent addition to the NextTier team, bringing over 30 years of investment banking, structured finance, and strategic consulting experience gained at major financial institutions and innovative specialty finance companies.   At NextTier, Mr. O'Rourke’s focus is on sourcing investment opportunities, developing capitalization strategies and identifying capital sources to support the full spectrum of NextTier's investment and advisory activities.

 Prior to joining NextTier HD, Mr. O'Rourke spent eight years developing specialty real estate finance solutions at Lance Capital LLC and Aether Energy Efficiency, LLC.  At these firms, Mr. O'Rourke provided cost-effective funding solutions to tenants, owners and developers for a variety of credit tenant net lease situations (including an award-winning structure to fund tenant improvements). An expansion of the credit tenant based lending approach saw capital provided to develop, own and operate large-scale energy efficiency projects by delivering a 100% funded turnkey solution.

As Managing Director and Partner at DTZ Rockwood, John established the Financial Services Group executing over $5.2 billion of senior/mezzanine debt, preferred equity, joint venture equity, and recapitalization transactions.  He also provided capital markets coverage on more than $3.7 billion of investment sales transactions. 

Prior to DTZ Rockwood at Goldman Sachs Managing Director at UBS Securities, John executed in excess of $7.5 billion of public, private placement, and securitization real estate transactions in the US, Canada and Europe for major clients and the firms’ own accounts. 

John began his career at Strategic Planning Associates (now a part of Mercer Consulting) where he provided systems consulting solutions for Fortune 500 companies. 

John holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Princeton University.

Gary J. Werner

MANAGING DIRECTOR - Acquisitions & Asset Management

Mr. Werner supports NT’s Asset Management and Property Management activities. Mr. Werner brings nearly 20 years of diversified commercial real estate experience to bear on supporting the NT plan for its assets under management and portfolio initiatives.

Prior to that Mr. Werner was in a similar position with HDG Mansur providing real estate fund and asset management and property development services. While there, Mr. Werner and his team managed and advised on over $5.6 billion in real estate investments on behalf of private clients and select institutions worldwide. Prior to that, Mr. Werner had turns at Mitsui Fudosan, UBS Realty Investors (where he worked with Mr. Reardon), Cornerstone Properties – subsequently acquired by Equity OfficeProperties – and RREEF. In addition, Mr. Werner had spent 5 years on the Senior Project Staff of one of the largest infrastructure construction projects in US history.

Mr. Werner currently serves as an Adjunct Professor, RE Finance at Baruch College – Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute and teaches Argus in Commercial Real Estate. Mr. Werner holds an MS - Real Estate Investment and Development with an Advanced Graduate Certificate in Construction. 

Sam Peskin

DIRECTOR

Mr. Peskin has focused on Data Center consulting and colocation brokerage/advisory/procurement and strategy work since 2006.  His clients have included some of the world’s largest financial and professional firms, as well as the data center vendor and Cloud/Technology community. 

Mr. Peskin brings over 10 years of relevant technology and data center management consulting experience to the team. Prior to joining DJS Group LLC, Mr. Peskin ran the Data Center Enterprise team at a global mission-critical consulting firm, focused on end-to-end data center strategy and execution programs. While there, the firm grew from a $20+mm consulting organization to an $80mm consulting/managed services firm.  Mr. Peskin received his BA from Hamilton College.

debbie F. Cohen

Managing Director - Finance & Asset Management

Ms. Cohen has over 20 years of commercial real estate asset management experience related to all aspects of debt and equity investments.  Debbie joined the NT team to focus on ensuring value enhancement opportunities are pursued in various portfolio initiatives, while utilizing her experience achieved throughout her career.

Most recently, Ms. Cohen worked as a consultant utilizing her negotiation, financial analysis and project management skills.  Prior to that, Debbie was a Vice President and Corporate Officer at the Mutual Life Insurance Company (MONY), where she was employed for 17 years.  Responsible for managing real estate investments in the Northeast portfolio and MONY’s national commercial real estate mortgage portfolio, she mentored national asset management staff in leasing, underwriting, servicing and loan workouts.  Debbie has a track record of utilizing strategic planning to maximize the return on investments while proactively redeveloping or repositioning assets. 

Debbie started her business career in public accounting providing her a sound financial analytic ability.  She understands the implications of events to the bottom line and how to manage the various aspects of operating a business.  

Ms. Cohen received a Masters in Real Estate Finance from New York University in 1990 and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University at Albany, SUNY in 1982.

  • “ Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different. ”
    — Von Oech
  • “ If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking. ”
    — Lyndon Baines Johnson
  • “ There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded. ”
    — Mark Twain
  • “ The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right. ”
    — Mark Twain
  • “ The Player that has grit, that will not give up, that will not bend to his opponent – he never loses a game, he just runs out of time. ”
    — John Wooden
  • “ There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves. ”
    — Will Rogers
  • “ It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. ”
    — Epictetus