Team

Richard H. Dinar, CPM

President

Richard Dinar serves as President Progressive Building Management, the company he founded in 1980 to leverage his many years of commercial property management experience. Throughout his career, Mr. Dinar has personally been responsible for the management of more than 5,000 multi-family residential apartments and condominium units; 1,350,000 square feet of retail locations; 8,000,000 square feet. of industrial buildings and over 4,000,000 square feet of office buildings.

Mr. Dinar received a B.S. Degree from Monmouth University in 1969, and since 1979 has held the designation of Certified Property Manager, (CPM) from the Institute of Real Estate Management. He is also a court appointed Condemnation Commissioner for Essex County, a court trained mediator, and member of the Essex County Courts Dispute Resolution Committee. He has acted as a Property Receiver, appointed by the courts in numerous counties throughout the State of New Jersey.

Mr. Dinar entered the real estate industry in 1965. During the early phases of his career, he was involved in the construction of commercial and residential structures. In 1968, he joined WEB Associates, where he was responsible for the completion of construction, tenant improvements and property management for approximately 1,000,000 square feet. of mid and high-rise office space in New Jersey. Mr. Dinar eventually rose to the position of executive vice president of the company.

In 1977, Mr. Dinar joined The Mack Company, which evolved into the Mack-Cali Organization, as Executive Director of Management. In that role he assumed responsibility for the management of over three and one-half million square feet of office, industrial and flex space throughout Bergen, Middlesex, Morris, and Essex counties.

After leaving The Mack Company in 1980, he formed Progressive Building Management. In its early years Progressive was associated with Equity Realty Management, which Mr. Dinar ran as CEO. He created that management organization for a real estate syndication firm, ultimately having responsibility for 43 multi-family; retail and commercial properties located in eleven states across the country.

In 1987 Mr. Dinar repositioned Progressive Building Management as an organization to serve the needs of property owners seeking high-quality hands-on management without the strings of the large brokerage/management organizations. Mr. Dinar continues as the President of Progressive today.

Mr. Diner is a licensed Real Estate Broker in the State of New Jersey. He serves as a current member and former chairman of the Planning Board for Township of Livingston, in Essex County, New Jersey.

Peter R. Johnson

Executive Vice President

Peter R. Johnson graduated from the Business School at West Virginia University in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in business. After graduation, Mr. Johnson started his own valet parking business and developed it into the largest company of its type in the state of New Jersey. His thriving and profitable organization was serving some 90 institutions by 2003, when he sold the business to start a new career in real estate.

In 2004, Mr. Johnson switched his direction from real estate sales to management, joining the Distinctive Real Estate organization in Parsippany, New Jersey. His responsibilities included advertising, accounting, supervision, and management of all company-owned properties, which included both retail and commercial sites. In 2006, he joined Stratford Realty Management, a development and management company as coordinator of all management field personnel, overseeing tenant improvements, and acting as liaison for the commercial tenants moving into the properties. He was also involved in the completion of construction, initial lease up and move in of tenants of multi-family apartments, in New Jersey, Ohio, and Pennsylvania consisting of eight properties with over one thousand multifamily apartments.

Mr. Johnson joined Progressive Building Management as Director of Operations in 2008. His primary function was to create and implement procedures to coordinate and improve tenant relations between construction, and management, and ensure that the transition of new tenants into the property was positively handled. Mr. Johnson was promoted to Director of Management in 2010, and responsible for creating both operating and capital budgets, bidding, and awarding maintenance contracts for janitorial, HVAC, and elevator services, training and supervising on site staff, implementing security measures, and creating secure access controls. He also investigated and initiated additional revenue sources for the properties. while pairing expenses to constantly improve the bottom line without negatively affecting tenant relations. During this time, he has been responsible for more than 45 individual properties which consist of more than twenty-five hundred residential apartments, and condominiums, and one million square feet of office, retail and mixed-use properties throughout New Jersey.

Mr. Johnson holds a CRP designation, is a licensed New Jersey Real Estate Agent, a member of NJAHA, The Community Association Institute, the Institute of Real Estate Management, (IREM), and is working toward his CPM designation.

Mitchell B. Katz

Director of Property Management

Over the course of more than 20 years, Mr. Katz has accumulated a wide range of experience in commercial real estate. His asset management and transactional experience has included multiple office and industrial projects throughout the north east. Mr. Katz has developed successful strategies for solving complex real estate needs and the necessary follow-up. by managing day-to-day processes which ensure successful conclusions.

Mr. Katz offers his clients in-depth market knowledge coupled with the unique perspective and business savvy that comes from having owned and managed the day-to-day operations of a New Jersey-based printing business, prior to entering the real estate industry.

Mr. Katz began his career in real estate in 1985 as a property manager for Philips International. While there he managed various commercial and residential projects across all five Boroughs of New York. In 2002, he joined the Trammell Crow Company, which later merged with CBRE. While there he coordinated the management and leasing for the International Trade Zone in Mount Olive, New Jersey. This nine building, 2.5 million square foot development was then owned by an affiliate of JP Morgan. In 2009 Mr. Katz was recruited to join Newmark, where he founded and led Newmark’s industrial practice group and was responsible for writing the company’s playbook. At Newmark, he was a key member of the team responsible for winning the Cummins account. For Cummins, Newmark was engaged to handle all global facilities and transaction management across their 26 million square foot portfolio. In addition, Mr. Katz has extensive project experience on behalf of institutional owners and has completed well over $850 million worth of transactions throughout his commercial real estate career. Mr. Katz brings time-tested negotiating techniques, a high level of creativity and superior research and technological skills to each assignment.

Mr. Katz has been engaged to speak at many different real estate conferences, including NAIOP’s I.Con East, SIOR’s local and national chapter events as well as various national and international conferences. Mr. Katz is the former New Jersey chapter president of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors.

Mr. Katz’s clients have included JP Morgan, The Hampshire Companies, Sappi Fine Paper, Cummins, Inc., Jerich, USA, Keurig Green Mountain, Equinix, Staples, Calvin Klein Cosmetics, Tiffany & Company, J.G. Petrucci, AMB (now part of Prologis) and ADP.

Mr. Katz is very active in the community, as a soccer, little league and softball coach. He is former New Jersey chapter president of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors.

Kristen Schultz

Finance Director

Kristen Schultz serves as Finance Director for Progressive Building Management. She has 30 years of experience in Finance and Accounting, the last 10 dedicated solely to commercial and residential property management.

Ms. Schultz received a B.S. Degree in Accounting from Trenton State University in 1992. Since then, she has held supervisory positions in both Public Accounting as well as the Private Sector.

Ms. Schultz started her career in public accounting and worked for several regional accounting firms before starting at Rothstein, Kass & Company in 2000 where she was a Tax Supervisor. Her responsibilities included the preparation and review of income tax returns including, Individual, Partnership, Corporation, S-Corporation, Tax-Exempt and Fiduciary, specializing in Hedge Funds. In addition, she represented clients before the Internal Revenue Service and state taxing authorities to resolve tax issues.

In 2013, she left public accounting and started her career in the Finance Department of a local real estate management firm. She was responsible for maintaining the books and records of over 30 properties as well as maintaining cash flow. Additionally, she prepared all year end accounting for financial as well as tax reporting.

Ms. Schultz joined Progressive Building Management in 2022 as Finance Director, supervisiing the accounting staff, and ensuring that all monthly reporting is processed and sent to clients in an accurate and timely fashion. Ms. Schultz oversees all books and records of Progressive and it’s clients, which includes 75 residential and commercial properties and covers in addition to those items already noted, cash flow analysis and loan reporting as required