Born in Manhattan, NY, Robert is a third generation real estate developer and has been involved in real estate development, financing, construction, and management for over 40 years. As an independent general contractor and developer, he started out at a young age managing and developing his family’s properties. He also worked for Morse/Diesel Construction company from 1966-1968 rising from clerk of the works on a high rise, mixed use building, to assistant to the President, before returning to college.  In 1970, he received a B.A. in Community Planning from the New School for Social Research in New York City. Studying with Buckminster Fuller during this period led Robert to put his focus on sustainability in all aspects of community planning.

Straight out of college, Robert quickly became an assistant vice president at Realty Equities Corporation of New York, where he was project manager and had full charge of various developments. He then went on to serve as Vice President of Leigh Realty Company, Inc. from 1974-1976; Robert handled property acquisition, management, and leasing for the company.

After receiving a M.B.A. from New York University Graduate School of Business Administration in 1977, Robert co-founded M.J. Raynes, Inc., a major NYC real estate organization and was the Licensed Broker of record.  As its President and CEO from 1977 through 1990, he was involved in all phases of real estate, property acquisitions, financing, development, leasing, and management for some of the most complex real estate transactions in New York City. In the late 1970’s Raynes, Inc. was actively converting empty buildings into 1500 apartments. One of the buildings is now designated a Landmark in Lower Manhattan, the Potter building – (INSERT LINK)

Starting in 1981 Raynes, Inc. became a leader in the conversion of rental buildings to co-operative and condominium ownership, new construction sales, sales brokerage, and property management services in NYC. In the 1980s Raynes was responsible for and involved in transactions totaling over $5 billion. Supervising the conversion of 90 different NYC properties from rental to “co-op” or condo ownership gave Robert a keen understanding of the community based political process with an appreciation for the financial, engineering and legal aspects of that process.

During this period, Robert also was a guest-lecturer for classes at the Real Estate Institute of New York University and Columbia University and was a member of the Real Estate Board of New York.

In the summer of 1990, Robert founded Living Earth Realty. The mission of Living Earth is to enhance the real estate environment by emphasizing practical solutions, fiscally sound measures, and environmental innovations, otherwise known as sustainable development. His corporation managed over $50 million in real estate assets during the 1990s. From 1991 through 1997, Living Earth was the exclusive national real estate representative for Merck/Medco, a Fortune 50 company as well as the largest mail-order pharmaceutical distributor in the U.S.; Merck/Medco is also known to be committed to energy efficiency. Living Earth identified and placed 9 facilities for the company across the United States.

In 1992, Robert formed an energy management company, Global Energy Preservation Corporation, which retrofitted 1.5 million square feet of buildings in-New York City with energy-efficient machinery and equipment over the span of three years; this experience immersed him in the arcane and complex regulatory environment for energy and utilities.

Then, in early 1997, he formed ReNEWal Realty, LLC as the Managing Partner; his goal with this company was to change the way people think about developing. From a historical real estate business point of view, Robert saw the opportunity to take existing properties, with infrastructure, and have them zoned and approved for redevelopment as an alternative to “paving paradise and putting up a parking lot”. In other words, instead of tying up farms and forests and subdividing them, redeveloping damaged properties was a sustainable activity. ReNEWal buys environmentally contaminated sites and redevelops them in a sustainable way to promote smart community rebuilding. In 2002, ReNEWal, in cooperation with local, county and state governments, won awards for Smart Growth Design and Development of Willingboro Town Center (see picture below), a 750,000+ square foot mixed-use development in Willingboro, NJ, from New Jersey Futures and the Regional Planning Partnership. In 2007, Willingboro Town Center master plan and Library, which ReNEWal built for the Township, won the Top Ten Green Projects award from the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA-COTE).

Robert has always been dedicated to his local communities, and over the years has served on numerous boards and been a strong member of several partnerships.

Throughout the 1980s, Robert was treasurer of the Council on Owner-Occupied Housing, which focused on the rules and regulations related to co-ops and condominiums in New York City. 

During this time period, he was also trustee and served on the executive committee of the Aperture Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing photography. Robert was also a director and co-founder of The Wittenberg Center for Alternative Resources, and served on the board of The Woodstock Center for Photography and The Woodstock Land Conservancy during this time.

• From 1996 – 1998, he was Chairman of the Committee for Building Change for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Living Earth Realty Corporation is also a member of USGBC.

• From 1997-2015, ReNEWal Realty has been a member of the Social Venture Network, the Environmental Business Association of New York, and the New Jersey Sustainable Business Alliance.

• From 2000 through 2006, Robert served as a boardmember of the Environmental Law Institute and Chairman of its Audit Committee. This Washington, DC active non-profit studies and advocates law, policy, and management changes to protect the environment.

• While living in Santa Fe, NM, from 2002 through 2006 he served on the board of the Santa Fe Railyard Community Corporation during the restoration and redevelopment of the historical downtown railyard. This project was an example of a community- based, sustainable redevelopment in which the Santa Fe city government recognized that it needed a development organization to focus on the development for the benefit of the project and the city. It has been an extraordinary success.

• In 2005-2006, Robert was co-chair of Governor Richardson’s Infrastructure Finance Team, which advised the Governor’s Finance Council on statewide infrastructure improvements for New Mexico totaling in excess of $20 billion. As co-chair, he facilitated the coordination of various government agencies, bringing about project-based action through the bureaucracy of a well-capitalized state government. 

• He was a founding member of New Voice of Business in San Francisco, CA, which, in 2006, helped successfully pass the Million Solar Roofs project through the California Public Utility Commission. 

He is past-President and co-founder of the Columbia River Business Alliance (CRBA), a bi-state coalition of local business people who promote sustainable economic development for the Columbia River region. This group was involved in the fight which stopped two liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals from being developed in the area. In addition, CRBA was focused on bringing renewable energy companies to the Columbia River region, building an alliance of local businesses in order to promote a sustainable economy for the future, and providing a voice for small business owners in affecting legislation and local decision-making processes. He also founded the non-profit Friends of the Astoria Armory and was responsible for its successful initial operation.