Atlantic Retail Named the 2023 Brokerage Firm of the Year
BOSTON- With a monster year in 2022, Atlantic Retail has cemented as New England’s #1 retail focused brokerage firm, developing and implementing growth strategies for retailers and restaurants while advising retail owners on both leasing and dispositions. In a market that had all but disappeared during the pandemic, Atlantic Retail has managed to survive and thrive as a regional and national retail brokerage firm in 2023.
A Boston-based firm, Atlantic currently works with more than 75 retail clients ranging from large format operators like Target, Costco, and Life Time, to smaller format users like Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle, and Chase Bank as well as a whole host of concepts in between covering retail, fitness, restaurant, and service users.
Their advisory services extend to a breadth of property owners from large institutional investors, family offices, and merchant developers. With its seasoned tenant rep and landlord rep teams, Atlantic has a unique pulse of the market, an unmatched transactional track record, and valuable long-standing relationships. The explosive growth of Atlantic Capital Partners, their investment sales division, during 2021 and 2022 provided additional fuel for Atlantic’s success.
Atlantic Retail’s Boston office is the first of the firm’s nine locations and has been serving New England and Upstate NY since 1991. Its long history in the market coupled with a diverse client base have given its brokers a depth of market knowledge, a transactional track record, and long-standing industry relationships that provide clients with critical insight and responsiveness to meet their real estate needs.
Over its 30-year tenure, Atlantic Retail has expanded to nine offices along the East Coast and Southern California. As they’ve grown, they have come to offer their clients a complete suite of services, including the divisions of Atlantic Capital Partners, Atlantic Property Management, and Atlantic Retail NYC.
The Boston office of Atlantic Retail is headed by Partners Bryan Anderson, Scott Black, Sean Gildea, Brian McDonald, David Smookler, Ben Starr, Steve Tomasello and Peter Considine.
Bryan Anderson
Bryan Anderson has been with Atlantic from the beginning, having interned during college and joining the company full time in 1992 following graduation. In the 29 years since, Anderson has worked with numerous retailers in both their expansion and disposition programs throughout the country. As a result of his many national relationships, he has been directly responsible for the expansion of Atlantic from its New England roots to nine offices nationwide over the past 20 years.
Away from the office, Anderson enjoys golfing, fishing, skiing, and any and all travel. He attended The Roxbury Latin School, where he currently serves as a Trustee, and then graduated from Tufts University. He lives in Westwood, MA with his wife April and their three children.
Scott Black
Scott Black, a Partner at Atlantic Retail, has been in real estate for more than 30 years. Black works in all facets of retail brokerage from tenant representation to landlord representation and the investment division. He has worked with many emerging brands and his career has been built working with large format retails such as Lowe’s Home Improvement, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Whole Foods Market, Kohls, Topgolf, and others. His focus also extends to landlord representation with leasing work for National Development, RPAI, Federal Realty, Carpionato Group, and others. Black is currently involved with the disposition of various Sears properties as well as Neiman Marcus in Natick.
Black graduated from the University of Denver with a B.A. in finance/marketing. In his free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors, golfing, and travelling. Black lives in Newton, MA with his wife and daughter.
Sean Gildea
As one of the founding partners of The Dartmouth Company in 1991, Sean Gildea has been in the real estate industry for over 25 years. He is involved in the acquisition and development of a variety of projects in the Northeast.
Brian McDonald
Brian McDonald started working at Atlantic in 1994 as an intern to one of Atlantic’s earliest brokers, the late Jim Given. In 1996, he joined the company as a full-time broker, and as they say the rest is history. With a primary focus on tenant representation, McDonald has led the retail market expansions in New England and Upstate New York on behalf of Bed Bath & Beyond, Christmas Tree Shops, Party City, and buy buy Baby. Additionally, he has served in a master-brokerage capacity for Petco, successfully opening new stores up and down the East Coast.
McDonald became a partner at Atlantic in 2010.
When McDonald is not in the office, he spends most of his time going to events for one of his four children. He and his family like to visit Block Island, Rhode Island during the summer and they reside in Norfolk, MA along with two dogs, two cats, and two horses.
David Smookler
David Smookler focuses on a wide range of transactions including large leases, property and land sales, and more general real estate advisory work for clients throughout New England, New York, and New Jersey. Throughout his career, he has represented both landlords and tenants, and is considered a strategic advisor for his clients for all their real estate decisions. His tenant advisory work has included the development of regional expansion strategies for Lowe’s Home Improvement, Barnes & Noble, and National Amusements where he has led the execution of over 200 lease transactions. His landlord advisory work has included investment sales, land sales, excess property disposition, and landlord representation for ground-up development projects. His deep knowledge of land opportunities has allowed him to pivot some of his focus to non-retail opportunities including the identification of sites for both Distribution, Manufacturing, Multi-Family, and Senior Living development.
Smookler co-founded The Dartmouth Company in 1991 and led the effectuation of the consolidation on Dartmouth’s behalf with Atlantic Retail in 2020. He earned a BS in Economics from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a JD from Suffolk University. He is an active member of ICSC, a past board member for ChainLinks Retail Advisors, and a member of the Massachusetts Bar.
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Smookler has dedicated his career to promoting local economic growth and bettering the community. On weekends, you can find him on the ocean recreationally, competitively sailing or spending time with his family.
Ben Starr
Ben Starr joined Atlantic in 2001 from Fameco (now CBRE) in the Philadelphia market. Since that time, he has worked on behalf of retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Staples, LA Fitness, Talbots, Pier 1, and Five Below in their New England site selection programs. Additionally, Starr has worked with a mix of REITS and private investors, marketing their retail assets. These owners include Kimco, Acadia, Black Creek, and the Grossman Company among others: Wegman’s in Burlington, Massachusetts, Kohl’s in Bedford, New Hampshire, LA Fitness in Natick, Massachusetts and Trader Joe’s in Nashua, New Hampshire.
Starr holds degrees from both the University of New Hampshire and the University of Virginia. He lives in downtown Boston and sits on the board of the Boston Main Streets Foundation. He has run twelve marathons, most recently New York City in 2018 on behalf of the Martin Richard Foundation.
Steve Tomasello
Steve Tomasello started his career at Atlantic fresh out of college in 1994 and, over the past 25 years, has worked with a diverse group of tenants and landlords and has enjoyed playing an active role in the transition and growth of Atlantic. Notably, Tomasello has led the New England expansion efforts for retailers such as Target, Nordstrom Rack, The TJX Company concepts, Total Wine, Chick-Fil-A, and Chase Bank.
Tomasello grew up in Reading, MA, graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering, and was a member of the Tufts Hockey team. He currently resides in Winchester with his wife Kelly and son. Outside of the office Steve enjoys all sports and has a love-hate relationship with the game of golf. He also enjoys traveling, dining out, spending time with friends and family and a nice glass of wine.
Peter Considine
Peter Considine has been working with the Dartmouth Company since 2004 managing relationships with national and regional retailers and institutional landlords. Considine’s experience in the retail markets throughout New England is vast – completing several transactions and assignments in each of the New England States. Currently, he is focusing his efforts and expertise on integrating retail into mixed-use environments and strategic consulting projects for retailers and land owners.
Considine exclusively works with retailers and landlords including Dick’s Sporting Goods, People’s United Bank, Capital One Bank, Macy’s, Core Investments, and National Amusements, Inc. He has significant experience in land assemblage, site identification, and deal negotiation. He is particularly focused on long-term strategic planning for growing retailers and property owners. Considine has BA from Hamilton College and an MBA from Boston University. He’s active in the Urban Land Institute, International Council of Shopping Centers.
