Alex Bernstein, MBA

“As the fourth-generation leader of Bernstein Real Estate, Alex has taken on nothing less than making the company future-proof. He notes that eighty percent of the company’s holdings sit within four blocks of his desk. “Instead of having twenty buildings and four hundred businesses and seven thousand people who work in them, I see twenty-nine million possible combinations.” We view our tenants as collaborative partners not adversaries. In some ways, Alex resembles the scions of many family real estate companies: he ran a freight elevator in high school, he worked as construction crew during summer breaks, and he believes deeply in the value of community as it relates to our tenants. Then there’s everything else: Alex runs marathons and cooks sous vide, he practices yoga, and years ago, his wife introduced him to Burning Man. He recalls, “My first year I did a Moroccan tea service. The second year I built a disco in the middle of the desert. At Burning Man, there’s no velvet rope. There’s no living in a box, working in a box, eating out of a box.” He has also traveled immensely, covering 6 continents, 38 countries, and 36 states. Alex obtained his BA at Union College in upstate New York and his MBA from Columbia Business School in 2000 majoring in Real Estate Finance. He is a member of the Real Estate Board of New York and the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association of New York, serving as Governor for three years. He was recently hailed the “”Young Real Estate Professional of the Year”” in 2018. A network of individuals: this is the idea that forms Alex’s vision for our neighborhood, North Chelsea, and all he’s done at Bernstein. When he redesigned the offices, for example, he sat the executives in transparent cubes, streaked with light. “There’s no boys’ club here,” he says. “No back-office staff hidden from sight.” He ticks off the firm’s other cutting-edge projects, from smart tenant meters to Manhattan’s biggest residential passive house. “There’s always a solution,” he says. “There’s always some overlap in the Venn diagram.” Alex resides in New Jersey with his wife and three children. “