CJ Follini

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CJ Follini (born in New York) is an American digital media entrepreneur, film producer and real estate investor. He built his group of companies by investing in alternative real estate types such as digital film studios; healthcare real estate; student housing; and artist residence clubs as well as providing venture capital for early stage digital content creators.

Biography[]

Follini grew up in Westchester County and New York City where he attended the Jesuit high school – Fordham Preparatory School. He also competed in collegiate ice hockey while in Boston. Follini received a General Course Degree in Econometrics from the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom. While in London he played rugby for LSE. He also studied in the Executive Masters program at Harvard Business School.

From the age of 12, he worked at entry level construction jobs learning the building trade from his father, Charles Follini Sr., a highly decorated former fireman with the FDNY and the CEO of the building conglomerate responsible for Idlewild Airport and the Whitestone Bridge – the Edenwald Group.[1]

Career[]

Investments[]

Follini is an expert on alternative real estate assets such as cold storage logistics[2] and speaks on panels and seminars around the world. A few career achievements include:

  • Developed the first Foreign Trade Zone in the US in partnership with Rockefeller Group Properties;[citation needed]
  • Founded the North Street Community to develop former St. Agnes Hospital Campus in White Plains, New York purchased at a foreclosure auction for $22,000,000. Recently announced the largest development in North America.[3]
    The 730,000-square-foot (68,000 m2), $250MM planned campus also includes assisted living and medical office buildings.[3]
  • Built and then sold a $400MM Noyack Medical healthcare real estate portfolio returning a 23% IRR;[4]
  • Founded the Guns for Hire Production Centers.[5] Follini conceived, designed and built GFH’s 700,000+ sq ft of digital media centers in New York, Miami,[6] Vancouver, Toronto, Austin and Los Angeles winning 1998 Crain’s Magazine Small Business Award;[7][8]
  • Purchased One Hanson Place;[9]
  • Named GlobeSt.com Real Estate Forum Industrial Influencer of 2021.[10]


Follini created and hosts the Ngage podcast (formerly Naked Cause podcast) since January 2016 to discuss topics of employee engagement, human capital management & cause marketing.[citation needed]

Content producer[]

Follini's first film production - Sling Blade - won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

In 2011, Follini created and directed Art/Trek NYC[11] and its broadcast on cable by NYC Media and . Art/Trek is a docu-series that explores NYC's five boroughs in a quest to showcase new and emerging artists. Traveling in the show's signature mobile art gallery – a converted recreational vehicle, nicknamed the ArtV – host CJ Follini joins a different borough-specific co-host in each episode to meet a rising artist who's on the verge of breaking into New York City's competitive art scene. Each artist puts together an impromptu art show in the ArtV and invites residents from their neighborhood to view the work and share their opinions about the art on camera. One of the five artists will be selected to have their own gallery show, which will be featured in a future episode.[11]

In 2008, Follini was the Executive Producer for the documentary Burning the Future: Coal in America story of mountaintop removal mining and its disastrous effects on the environment.[12]

In 2000, Follini produced the short film Bullet in the Brain,[13] winner of ten festival awards including the first Million Dollar Hypnotic/Universal Short Film Award whose cast included writer/director Lorene Scafaria; and Dean Winters; and George Plimpton. He also produced Someday, a music video for Irish pop band "Tellulah Crash," and a public service announcement for the R.E.A.C.H. Foundation, an organization that helps children with life-threatening diseases and children in low-income school districts.

Additional production credits include:[citation needed]

Honors[]

  • CJ Follini was the Co-Chairman of The board of directors of the HERE Arts Center in SoHo which honored him with the HEREmanitarian Award in June 2014.[14]
  • Winner of The International Documentary Association's 2008 Pare Lorentz award for Best Documentary [15]
  • His production Sling Blade - won the 1997 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay[16][failed verification]
  • Winner of 1998 Crains Small Business Award for Gun For Hire Digital Media Centers[7]
  • Winner of 2001 Universal Studios/Hypnotic Film Award for Bullet in the Brain[17]

References[]

  1. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths FOLLINI, CHARLES F." The New York Times. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  2. ^ Borl, Kelsi Maree; September 23, |; AM, 2020 at 07:05. "Pandemic Creates Surging Demand for Cold Storage Industrial". GlobeSt. Retrieved April 2, 2021.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b "$250M Senior Project Gets Key Approval". GlobeSt.com. July 10, 2007. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  4. ^ "Noyack Capital". Retrieved October 5, 2021.[unreliable source?]
  5. ^ "Take 2: Film Firm Expands in Village". Crains New York. January 4, 1999.
  6. ^ n.a. (October 20, 1999). "Gun For Hire production center settles in Miami Beach". South Florida Business Journal.
  7. ^ a b Croghan, Lore (January 4, 1999). "TAKE 2: FILM FIRM EXPANDS IN VILLAGE; GUN FOR HIRE LEASES MORE SPACE AS DEMAND GROWS FASTER THAN EXPECTED | Crain's New York Business". Crainsnewyork.com. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  8. ^ "Apps - Access My Library - Gale". Access My Library. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  9. ^ "Noyack Medical Partners Snags Office Condo". GlobeSt.com. May 19, 2008. Archived from the original on May 22, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  10. ^ "Industry Influencers". GlobeSt Real Estate Forum. September 2021.
  11. ^ a b https://web.archive.org/web/20130121174041/http://www.nyc.gov/html/media/html/tv/nyctv_life_arttrek.shtml. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved March 23, 2013. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ^ Ronnie Scheib (February 28, 2008). "Burning the Future: Coal in America". Variety. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  13. ^ https://www.variety.com/profiles/Film/main/34420/Bullet%20in%20the%20Brain.html?dataSet=1. Retrieved November 12, 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)[permanent dead link]
  14. ^ "CJ Follini accepting the HEREmanitarian Award". Retrieved October 5, 2021.[unreliable source?]
  15. ^ "IDA's 2008 IDA Documentary Awards Competition Nominees Announced | International Documentary Association". Documentary.org. October 28, 2008. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  16. ^ "1997 Academy Award Winners". Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  17. ^ Carey, Patricia (October 12, 1998). "Triumphant in Technicolor". CRAINS New York. Retrieved October 1, 2012.

External links[]

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