Sean Cronin Named as Co-President of Long Island Real Estate Group

Long Island Real Estate Group names Brennan and Cronin as co-presidents

February 18, 2020 – Front Section

Westbury, NY The Executive Board of the Long Island Real Estate Group (LIREG) has elected Alison Brennan and Sean Cronin as co-presidents. 

For many years, Brennan and Cronin have been instrumental in the growth and leadership of LIREG as active members, committee members and members of the Executive Board. 

Brennan is CEO of First Development Corp., where she focuses her work on leasing, management, financing and real estate development. She has been at the forefront of LIREG’s efforts to expand the involvement of the next generation and women in the L.I. real estate community for over a decade. She has been active in the LIREG New Gen group, which develops networking events and charitable projects aimed at members under 40. 

With the economic crisis of 2008, she saw a new opportunity to expand LIREG’s reach. “So many college students were looking for their passion, and the opportunity for real- world experience,” she said. Along with executive board member Bram Weber, she founded the LIREG @ Work mentoring program at Hofstra University. This program of rotating internships enabled Hofstra undergraduate and graduate students to gain first-hand experience at a wide array of real estate-related businesses on Long Island. 

Similarly, Brennan sought to increase the involvement and visibility for women in the organization. “In the beginning, I would go to LIREG events and I’d see two hundred men and maybe a dozen women,” she said. In 2014, she co-founded LIREG W, a group with the mission of increasing the voice, engagement and opportunity for professional women in the real estate industry and the allied trades who live or work on Long Island. LIREG W soon became one of LIREG’s fastest growing and most enthusiastic member groups, featuring well attended events with high-profile speakers. 

A member of the LIREG Executive Board for seven years, Brennan is seeking to maximize the organization’s impact on Long Island as co-president. “LIREG has always done amazing work,” she said. “We bring the Long Island development industry together and have donated over a million and a half dollars to fund real estate-related projects for local charities. Moving forward, I’d like to leverage the energy we have in the room. If we can utilize all of the knowledge we have on our board and at our events, we can make our connections even stronger and bring LIREG to the next level – both for the development community and the Long Island community as a whole.” 

Cronin is a partner at Cronin & Cronin Law Firm, where he specializes in negotiating tax certiorari matters for prominent developers, national REITs and local area tenants. He has been a member of LIREG for 13 years and a member of the Executive Board for eight years. In addition, he has helped lead the organization’s growth and development as chair of the Membership Committee and chair of the New Gen group. 

In assuming his new role as co-president, Cronin’s goals are to build on the strong foundation LIREG’s leadership has established. “It’s a tremendous opportunity,” he said. “So many talented people have worked to develop our roots. I want to continue that consistent growth. LIREG began as a small organization but we are now at the point where people throughout the Long Island development and real estate community are involved in our events and charitable giving projects. We need to continue to build on that momentum, with quality events featuring quality people, and active participation from developers.” 

Cronin is also active in the professional real estate community outside of his work with LIREG. As an executive board member of CoreNet Global, the world’s leading association for corporate real estate and workplace professionals, he was selected by that group as one of “36 Under 36 Young Leaders to Watch.” He is an active board member of Vision Long Island, which promotes livable, economically sustainable, environmentally responsible smart growth on Long Island; a board member of the non-profit Environmental Professionals Association; and an active member of the Chaminade Lawyers Association and Chaminade Real Estate Association. In addition, he was honored by Long Island Business News as one of “40 Under 40 Rising Stars” in the business community. 

Cronin serves on the Executive Committee for the Long Island Special Olympics Annual “Evening of Champions.” He has volunteered with the Long Beach Martin Luther King Center, and was especially active in helping the organization recover after the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy. For his efforts, he was presented with a Proclamation from the City of Long Beach. He has also performed pro bono work for Henry Kaufman Campgrounds, a non-profit that has enabled hundreds of thousands of children to have summers of fun over the years. 

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Photo by David Winzelberg