In 1971, Robert Friedland established Friedland Realty Inc. as an industrial real estate brokerage firm servicing the Bronx and Lower Westchester. The company started as a one-man operation in the basement of an office building, with a focus on industrial real estate. Forty five years later, Friedland Realty Inc is the largest privately owned commercial real estate firm in the Bronx and Westchester area, with more than twenty brokers specializing in Industrial, Retail and Office leasing and sales and investment sales.
While running Friedland Realty, Mr. Friedland began a side- practice of investing in commercial real estate, often putting together syndications and other joint venture deals. For the most part, these deals were value added investments, where some level of development was done in order to make a property realize its intrinsic value. These investments proved to be extremely lucrative for both Mr. Friedland and his investors. It was a natural progression to look for value-added investment opportunities on a full time basis. In the spring of 2001, Westrock Development was created, and Mr. Friedland now serves as chairman of Westrock. During the past 18 years Mr. Friedland acquired Shleppers Moving and Storage, KIA of Old Saybrook and created Sensible Auto Lending.
Mr. Friedland earned his bachelor degree from Bard College, and received an MBA from Adelphi University. He also did graduate work in Physics at the University of Connecticut.
Mr. Friedland has been active with, just on a Jewish level, JNF, JCCMW, ADL, UJA, Temple Israel Center, Sulam Ya’akov and a myriad of other organizations. He was also an owner of the former Westchester Jewish Chronicle.