33rd Annual Real Estate Dinner

Gregg Fusaro has been a Partner with CIG Communities (formerly Capital Investment Group) since he joined the company in 2006. Currently Mr. Fusaro oversees the development efforts for CIG Communities in Cincinnati, Naples, Florida and Sarasota, Florida. Mr. Fusaro’s first development with CIG was the SouthShore Condominiums, a 21 story 64-unit luxury condominium development across from downtown Cincinnati in Newport, Kentucky. Over the past fifteen years, CIG has completed over $280 million in new developments. 

In 2014, Mr. Fusaro led development of Aqua on the Levee, an $80 million mixed use project consisting of 239 residential units, a 140 room Aloft hotel, 8300 square feet of retail, and an 800-car parking garage adjacent to Newport on the Levee. Aqua on the Levee received the 2016 NAIOP Retail/Hospitality Deal of the Year. These developments in Northern Kentucky have had a major economic impact on the City of Newport and the Cincinnati region. 

Over the last several years, CIG Communities has continued to pursue an urban/midtown strategy with the completion of a seven-story mixed use project in downtown Louisville. This project features 232 luxury apartments, 10,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space and a 310-space parking garage. Additionally, the company is working towards completion of Aspire Kenwood, a $130 million mixed use project in Kenwood that includes 248 apartment residences, a 132 room Residence Inn hotel, restaurants, a 800 car parking garage and a 10-story mixed use building that is in final planning. To diversify geographically. Mr. Fusaro has led efforts to develop new communities in Florida. In 2019, he managed the acquisition and development of a site in Orlando on which the Company constructed 290 luxury apartments. The company is currently under construction on a 239-unit community in Naples and is about to break ground on a 157-unit community in downtown Sarasota. 

Prior to joining Capital Investment Group, Mr. Fusaro was Director of Business Development for thirteen years with Miller Valentine Group’s housing subsidiary.

Prior to joining Miller-Valentine Group, Mr. Fusaro was an investment specialist with CB Richard Ellis for twelve years. 

Mr. Fusaro is a graduate of Northwestern University and holds real estate sales and broker licenses in Ohio and Kentucky. He is an active member of the Cincinnati Board of Realtors Commercial Division and the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Apartment Association. He has been a frequent instructor for the apartment association’s CAM designation courses and has served on its education committee. 

For the last nine years, Fusaro has been a member of the University of Cincinnati Real Estate Executive Advisory Council. Additionally, CIG Communities and Mr. Fusaro are members of the Board of Executive Advisors in Real Estate (BEARE) for the University of Cincinnati Real Estate Center. Fusaro is very involved with the Real Estate Center’s mentorship program and recently hired one of his mentees. 

More recently, Mr. Fusaro served on the economic development committee for Anderson Township and chaired the committee for three years. He has also been a member of SouthBank Partners Riverfront Commons Board for the last ten years. This Northern Kentucky group has been responsible for creating the walking/biking trail along the Northern Kentucky riverfront Fusaro also currently serves on the board of the Purple People Bridge Company. This non-profit owns the Purple Pedestrian Bridge; its mission is to operate, preserve, and enhance this pedestrian link between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. 

One of Mr. Fusaro’s other passions is music, and he has used that passion to help others. He is one of the original members of Suits that Rock, a group of C-Suite musicians who donate their time to each year to raise money for the Carnegie non-profit. The Carnegie, located in Covington Kentucky, provides ongoing art gallery exhibits, live theater productions and in school and after school art education. Suites that Rock performs a benefit concert each year and all proceeds go to Carnegie’s after school art programs. Last year this effort generated over two hundred thousand dollars and pushed the total generated by Suits to over $1 million dollars. 

Corporate Sponsor - $5,000

Includes

• One full table with preferential seating (10 seats)
• Twenty complimentary drink tickets
  
• Prominent display of your company logo on all marketing materials (website, dinner advertisements, event programs, sponsor signs, invitation)

Bearcat Sponsor - $2,500

Includes

• Half table with preferential seating (5 seats)
• Ten complimentary drink tickets
  
• Prominent display of your company logo on all marketing materials (website, dinner advertisements, event programs, sponsor signs, invitation)

Individual Sponsor - $1,250

Includes

• Two tickets to dinner
• Four complimentary drink tickets
• Prominent display of your company logo on all marketing materials (website, dinner advertisements, event programs, sponsor signs, invitation)

Marianne Taylor is a Senior Associate on CBRE’s OH + LEX Multifamily Team and is a partner with Kurt Shoemaker. She is responsible for listing and selling multifamily apartment complexes, accompanying prospective buyers on property site visits, maintaining current market knowledge, and negotiating contracts. Marianne holds both an Ohio and Kentucky Real Estate Salesperson license, and she is working to achieve her CCIM designation.

She joined CBRE in 2019 after an almost ten-year career at PNC Bank, where she excelled in both commercial real estate underwriting for investment properties and small business relationship management. During her career, Marianne has closed countless investment and owner-occupied commercial real estate dispositions and loans. 

She has a passion for developing the careers of others and acted as a mentor for six retail bank associates during her tenure with PNC Bank. She also acted as a mentor for a student that recently graduated from UC’s RE program, and she is currently mentoring another UC RE student.

Marianne earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Cincinnati, where she achieved Magna Cum Laude and Beta Gamma Sigma honors. While at UC, she played on the Women’s Golf Team and competed in every tournament during her college career. She received a Master of Business Administration from Xavier University, where she received Beta Gamma Sigma honors. She is an Adjunct Instructor at the UC Lindner College of Business, teaching an evening class called Property and Asset Management.  

She is currently a member of the UC Real Estate Executive Advisory Council (REEAC), the Clifton Heights Business Association (CHBA), and the Emerging Leaders of Cincinnati Parks Foundation. Marianne is also an active member of the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Apartment Association’s (GCNKAA) Social Media Committee. 

On June 14, 2023, 620 guests visited Music Hall in downtown Cincinnati to highlight the accomplishments of the center, the real estate program, its supporters, Carl H. Lindner College of Business faculty and staff and distinguished students and alumni.

The evening’s highlights included:

• A celebration of 2022-23 academic year scholarship recipients
• Recognition of the Board of Executive Advisors in Real Estate Scholars
• The introduction of Gary Painter, PhD, as the new academic director of the real estate program
• Recognition of Laura Brunner, president and CEO of the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority, as the recipient of the Distinguished Real Estate Service Award.

Following a two-year absenced due to COVID-19, the center marked the joyous return of its annual awards dinner on June 1, 2022, attracting 550 commercial real estate professionals to the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati to celebrate the accomplishments of the center, program, faculty, staff and distinguished students and alumni.

Rusty Myers, BBA ’82, was recognized as the Distinguished Service Award recipient. Myers is a longtime volunteer and servant leader for UC. The fourth-generation Bearcat is a past president of the UC Alumni Association, Real Estate Advisory Counsel and Real Estate Roundtable.

Furthermore, 18 students received a combined total of $40,000 in UC scholarship awards. Additionally, four of these students received additional external scholarships from Ohio Realtors and Society of Industrial and Office Realtors valued at another $7,000.