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The GSP Team
01
What do you do at Graffito?
I get to touch all aspects of our business, from drafting contracts and SOWs for new projects, to supporting the team on our most complex strategy + leasing assignments, to working with Melissa and Noah on our new business lines. I also take out the trash every Monday and Friday, have approval rights on all of Drew’s GSP merch ideas, and develop the itinerary for our annual food crawl.
What is your educational + professional background?
I’ve been a small business lawyer, artist/musician manager, and ran a student directory business, the latter of which I started while an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I attended law school at Northeastern University here in Boston, a truly progressive place that advanced my passion for social justice, taught me how to read a contract, and brought me together with a classmate turned business partner who first dragged me over to Kendall Square for a real estate project in 2004.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
Ramen (also applies to winter. And spring and summer).
02
Melissa Castro
Tenant Relations + Partnerships
What do you do at Graffito?
My role centers on building new connections, identifying and managing small business leads, and serving as Graffito’s in-house expert on initiatives that strengthen tenant relations for our clients. On any given day, I’m out in the field, exploring new restaurants or cultivating strategic partnerships that add value and drive impact to our projects.
What is your educational + professional background?
Most recently I was the Director of Business Development at CommonWealth Kitchen, Greater Boston’s food business accelerator. In this role, I worked with small businesses and entrepreneurs who are predominantly women, immigrants, and people of color. I hold a B.A. in Marketing and Communications from UMass Amherst and an M.B.A. from Babson College. Before business school, I spent 9 years working in NYC for several digital marketing agencies focused on the financial services sector in hybrid project management and client services roles.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
My favorite fall comfort food is a warm bowl of Dominican Sancocho, paired with a side of avocado and white rice. Dominican Sancocho is a hearty stew with meat and root vegetables.
03
Tania Celestin
Retail Leasing
What do you do at Graffito?
From outreach to transaction, I work to support the relationships of our landlord clients with primarily local, independent operators as tenants.
What is your educational + professional background?
I was born and raised in Boston and I hold a BS in Business Administration & Management with a concentration in Business Law from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. I have a background in luxury retail, artist representation, and international travel as a former flight attendant for Delta Air Lines. The pandemic allowed me to shift gears and I worked as a residential Realtor at Gibson | Sotheby’s International Realty prior to joining Graffito.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
This may be a bit basic, but I love anything pumpkin and sweet potato. Lattes, pies, soups – yes to it all!
04
Dave Downing
Retail Leasing
What do you do at Graffito?
I lead Graffito’s leasing practice, which includes early-stage retail advisory work through detailed lease negotiations for both Landlords and Tenants.
What is your educational + professional background?
Prior to joining the Graffito team full-time in 2012, I helped oversee the development of Watermark Kendall East, a 144-unit mixed use residential project in Kendall Square, Cambridge MA. This role offered me the opportunity to build skills in permitting, client relations, budgeting, team coordination, leasing and tenant fit-up management. I hold a BS in Business Administration from Northeastern with a concentration in Finance and Marketing.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
Homemade turkey chili is the perfect hot meal on a cool fall evening. Don’t forget the scratch cornbread!!
05
Wendell Joseph
Pre-Leasing + Planning
What do you do at Graffito?
I lead our team’s pre-leasing and planning initiatives that expand and deepen our work in supporting our clients in the critical ground floor design and strategy phases of mixed-use development projects.
What is your educational + professional background?
Most recently, I was a project planner at Toole Design Group, a full-service transportation planning and engineering firm, where I led/supported active transportation plans, corridor studies and street designs, and equity frameworks. Previously, I worked for Sasaki and the City of Cambridge as a planner on a wide range of projects including neighborhood and public realm planning, community needs and benefits, and development review. I hold a Master of Architecture from Andrews University and a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
A warm slice of pumpkin pie and hot apple cider on the side.
06
Drew Katz
Creative Services + Branding
What do you do at Graffito?
I lead Graffito ID (GID), Graffito’s creative services and branding division. GID helps our colleagues and clients tell stories through branding, environmental graphics, and website design. As a photographer, I’m also busy documenting projects from the land and air. Most importantly, I make sure that there is plenty of Graffito swag available to those that want it. Oh, and I notarize things.
What is your educational + professional background?
Shortly after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, I opened a fine art gallery in Boston’s South End. The gallery, which featured mostly formalist works heavily based in architecture and design, gave artist Shepard Fairey his first solo exhibition in the city. Since leaving the gallery business, I served as the Associate Publisher for the critically acclaimed periodical, New American Paintings, received an MBA from Babson College, and founded Creative Katz, an agency focused on creative direction, branding, photography, and creative services graphic design, for industries ranging from healthcare to hospitality. Before joining Graffito, I was Chief Creative Officer at an integrated agency offering creative services, public relations, and marketing for start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
Nothing says ‘fall vibes’ like a warm sweater, a crackling fire, and a bowl of chili or braised brisket. It’s so good, even the leaves are jealous! – ChatGPT assisted
07
Noah Koretz
Neighborhood Investments + Partnerships
What do you do at Graffito?
I am developing new frameworks for Graffito to work with clients and partners on joint ventures, direct investments, and other creative business structures that utilize Graffito’s unique relationships and capabilities to maximize values alignment and community impact for the communities in which we work.
What is your educational + professional background?
originally came to both real estate work and Boston itself to work as an attorney, where I became fascinated by complex neighborhood-scale development through my work on a legal matter involving some of the early-stage transformation of Kendall Square from heavy industry to R+D. I refocused my career from legal practice to project-based work in urban neighborhoods, and I was most recently the Director of the Transformative Development Initiative (TDI) at MassDevelopment, an innovative program that imbeds with local partnerships in neighborhoods in smaller, postindustrial cities to work on local small business and real estate growth. I have a BA from Cornell University, a JD from The George Washington University Law School, and a Masters in City Planning from MIT.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
Roasting pumpkin seeds with butter and salt and washing it down with a Guinness.
08
Johanna Loughran
Finance + Administration
What do you do at Graffito?
I take care of all of the bookkeeping and business administrative tasks.
What is your educational + professional background?
I have been doing accounting and HR for the past 10+ years, working mostly with restaurants and cafes. I started my career working for a large company in Philadelphia and then moved back to Boston and fell in love with small businesses. BA in Psychology from the University of Vermont.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
Cider donuts from Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury are my favorite fall treat!
09
Brooke Porter
Creative Services + Branding
What do you do at Graffito?
As a graphic designer, I offer creative solutions that help define our clients’ (and our own) branding and storytelling. I specialize in creating and maintaining brand identity systems, as well as website design and development. I’m excited to further explore different types of design such as environmental and wayfinding graphics, and bring to life the unique stories of the spaces and clients we work with.
What is your educational + professional background?
Shortly after high school, I received an Associates Degree in Advanced Culinary Arts from the Connecticut Culinary Institute (I make a mean crepe). I worked in the restaurant industry for a little while, and eventually went back to school to pursue a graphic design degree. A two-year stint at Manchester Community College (CT) got me an Associates Degree in Graphic Design, and I then transferred to the University of Hartford from which I received a BFA in Visual Communication Design in 2015. While in school, I worked as a designer for three years at Sunrise Marketing, a small marketing firm in Hartford, CT. After graduating from UHart, I accepted a new job at marlo marketing in Boston, where I worked for more than four years as a senior designer and chief supporter of Drew’s candy habit. I joined the Graffito team in January 2020, and the future is wide open!
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
Halloween Oreos – I swear the orange colored creme filling somehow tastes better than the normal filling. And call me basic, but I have been known to enjoy a PSL or two… nondairy and half pumps of syrup to make it “healthy” of course.
10
Angela VanArsdale
Retail Leasing
What do you do at Graffito?
I assist Landlords and Tenants through the leasing process and real estate transactions. This ranges from consulting on early stage planning, merchandising and rollout strategies all the way through to negotiating details of the lease.
What is your educational + professional background?
Prior to joining Graffito, I was a retail leasing broker at Newmark Knight Frank for 5 years. Previous to that, I was at Colliers International in a similar capacity for 5 years. My focus is on urban and urban edge areas advising both landlords and tenants through all aspects of the leasing process. I am a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Harvard Square Business Association. I hold a BA in economics with a minor in architectural studies from Tufts University.
What’s your favorite fall comfort food (or drink)?
Apple cider bourbon by an outdoor fire.