The company occupies a unique position in the market place by offering a focused team approach with performance accountability for any project. This is combined with many years of experience and the highest caliber of professionalism. In recent years, the firm has leased over 3.5 million square feet and sold 8.6 million square feet of commercial property with a value of over $1 billion dollars.

HK Group's brokers have an average of 20 years in the industry and have earned their reputation as the highest quality professionals with exacting standards of integrity. Its employees are experienced, sophisticated personnel who are skilled in handling difficult lease and complicated investment transactions.

H. T. (Ted) Hampe Chairman

Ted Hampe has been a leading commercial broker for the past 27 years. After seven years as Senior Vice President of New York-based Cross & Brown Company, responsible for their two Connecticut offices, he founded H T Hampe Associates, Inc., in 1988. He remains Chairman of the firm, which was renamed HK Group in 2001 and enjoyed its 4th straight record-breaking year in 2007.

While the firm is a full-service organization in brokerage and property management, Mr. Hampe has personally concentrated on office leasing and sales. Over the years, he has completed assignments for numerous major corporations, including: EMC, Matrix One, Procter & Gamble, Mobil Oil, Metropolitan Life, Playtex Products, Commonfund, Westinghouse, Yankelovich Partners, Heyman Properties, The Ryan Partnership and Abercrombie & Kent.

Prior to his entry into real estate, he spent 20 years in corporate marketing and held senior executive positions with Procter & Gamble; Glendinning Companies; Sperry & Hutchinson; and Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics (CEO).

A graduate of Iowa State University, along with an M.B.A. from Harvard, Mr. Hampe has earned the two highest commercial real estate designations - CCIM and SIOR - through educational courses, examinations and excellent transaction records.

Mr. Hampe has chaired the following Westport community service organizations: Chamber of Commerce, Community Council, Rotary, Affordable Housing Committee, and Earthplace, The Nature Discovery Center; also many years of United Way and YMCA board membership plus fundraising.
 

Matthew F. Keefe President and co-owner

In 1982 Mr. Keefe was offered a position as Senior Vice President of Durfee & Company in Stamford, Connecticut. This firm was also owned by Peter Malkin of New York and Bruce Warwick of Greenwich, Connecticut. Mr. Keefe immediately established his position as top broker in the company, a position he maintained for the next twelve years. Corporate clients served include General Electric Capital, AMAX, Pittston, National Distributors, Conoco, Cadbury Schwepps, John Brown LTD, Turner Construction, IBM, US Tobacco and many others.

Mr. Keefe has specialized in tenant representation and investment services. He has won and maintained the position as Number One in investment sales in Connecticut over the past ten years. His most recent sales in the last year were the 120,000 SF class A office building at 1111 and 1177 Summer Street in Stamford, CT, the 155,000 SF Harrison Executive Park in Harrison, New York, the 605,000 SF Greenwich-American Centre in Greenwich; the 87,000 SF former Emery Air Freight building in Wilton; and the 285,000 SF multi-tenanted office building at 145 Huguenot Street in New Rochelle, New York.

Mr. Keefe is currently President and co-owner of HK Group. He graduated from Georgetown University with a Bachelor of Arts/Science and a major in Finance. Mr. Keefe is active in local athletic and civic activities and serves on various boards. He has four children and resides in Southport, Connecticut.
 

Franco Fellah Executive Vice President

Franco Fellah’s involvement in Manhattan real estate began in 1979. While in Milan, Italy, between 1979 and 1990, Mr. Fellah and his family syndicated acquisitions of prime property in central Manhattan in conjunction with OTIC Corp., a New York-based firm. Property acquired at that time included, among others, 128 Central Park South and a 59-unit residential complex adjoining the Plaza Hotel. While proceeding with syndications of prime Manhattan real estate throughout the 80’s, Mr. Fellah was involved in condo conversions projects in Milan, Italy.

In 1994, Mr. Fellah was offered a position of Senior Vice President at a Westport, CT commercial real estate firm. During the five years with that firm, Mr. Fellah handled, among other projects, assignments including a 130,000 SF Sears anchored shopping center in Texas, the sale of a 50,000 SF Class A office complex in New London, CT , currently 100% leased to Pfizer, the sale of an entire mixed-use block of downtown Main Street Ridgefield, CT to a Connecticut-based Real Estate Investment Trust, the sale of a 31-unit luxury condo building in New York and the sale of over 210 apartments in two buildings in Waterbury, CT.

Mr. Fellah has represented the US Government - Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation - in the disposition of several of its prime commercial real estate assets in Connecticut, Stew Leonard’s supermarkets, Mid-South Investment in Longview, Texas, the Morelli family in Ridgefield and a number of partnerships and individuals, servicing their real estate needs.

In 1999, Mr. Fellah joined HK Group where he is Executive Vice President: his focus with the firm has been investment property sales such as shopping centers, office buildings and apartment complexes.

A sample of real estate transactions completed while at HK Group include the sale of the 200,000 SF Price Chopper anchored Torrington Fair shopping center in Torrington, CT, the sale of a 90,000 Shaw’s anchored shopping center in Tilton, NH, the sale of a 50,000 SF office building at One Greenwich Place in Shelton, CT and two long-term retail store leases to CVS in Norwalk, CT with an aggregate value in excess of $23 million.

For the third year in a row, following 2005, Mr. Fellah is the broker with the highest number of completed real estate transactions at HK Group.

Mr. Fellah, a resident of Westport, Connecticut is a licensed real estate broker in the states of Connecticut and New York.

Mr. Fellah graduated with top grades from the Universitá degli Studi in Milan, Italy and holds a degree in Political Sciences with a major in International Studies.

Robert Harris Senior Vice President

On January 1, 2002, Mr. Harris was appointed Senior Vice President of HK Group, a leading regional corporate and commercial real estate sales and leasing company headquartered in Westport, Connecticut. In an expansion of the real estate operation, Mr. Harris opened a Stamford Office of HK Group located at One Atlantic Street.

Mr. Harris corporate real estate assignments include IBM, MetLife, New Alliance Corporation, Reed Exhibition, Walden Books, Aetna, Inc., Dianon Systems, Inc., Conair Corporation, People's Bank, and many other recognized corporate names. He has participated in HK Group's sales of over 513 million square feet and over 1 million square feet in leases.

Prior to entering the real estate market, Mr. Harris was Director of International Financial Operations for Champion International Corporation, Chesebrough-Pond's, Inc. and Gulf & Western Industries. He was responsible for the offshore financial and tax structure of corporate acquisitions and sales. Mr. Harris was responsible for in excess of $3.8 billion dollars of transactions. He is skilled in financial management, problem solving, project management and successful real estate lease and sales negotiations.

Mr. Harris is active in politics and volunteer activities. Some of his activities are: Board of Finance City of Stamford, four year elected term, Chair of the Audit, Board of Education & Police Department Committees and Board of Trustees New York Military Academy.

Mr. Harris is a licensed broker in the States of Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts. He resides in Stamford, Connecticut.
 

Mal Jacobson Senior Vice President

Mal Jacobson has been involved in Commercial Real Estate for the past 16 years, 10 of those years with HK Group.

Prior to his entry into real estate, he had been involved in the retail and financial world, most recently as a marketing executive for a large hedge fund.

Born in South Africa, he emigrated to the United States in 1977 with his wife and three sons. He became an American citizen in 1983 and has lived in Westport since 1977.

In South Africa, he was the Chief Financial Officer and a Director and Co-founder of what became the largest supermarket group in Southern Africa.

He is a graduate of the University of Witwatersrand in Johnnesburg, South Africa with a Chartered Accountant's degree which is equivalent to a Certified Public Accountant degree.

Mal has been actively involved in many charitable organizations including Rotary and PAWS.
 

David A. Flayhan Senior Vice President

David Flayhan has been in the Commercial Real Estate field for seven years.  In those seven years, he has proved to be an aggressive producer in both investment sales as well as office leasing.  In August of 2002, Mr. Flayhan joined forces with the well-established and highly recognized HK Group in Westport, CT where he has now earned the title of Senior Vice President.  In the past five years, Mr. Flayhan has leased more than 350,000 square feet of space consisting of office, retail, industrial and R & D.  Concurrently, Mr. Flayhan has been very aggressive in the marketing and sales of many investment Real Estate and development projects with an aggregate sale value at present, exceeding $58,000,000.

Before joining HK Group, Mr. Flayhan held his real estate license with Preferred Properties Commercial Inc. in Greenwich, CT where he proved to be the top producer in both sales and leasing.

A graduate of the University of Connecticut, Mr. Flayhan studied business management and the field of horticulture where he earned his Bachelors degree.

Ciara Connolly Vice President

Ciara Connolly joined HK Group’s Westport location in 2004.  In the short time since joining HK Group, Ciara has been responsible for a number of office and retail leases.  She was also involved in the sale of three major townhouse developments in Greenwich, CT. 

Prior to joining HK Group, Ms. Connolly was involved in banking and investment analysis for AIB Bank of Ireland, where she worked as a fund manager in the Investment Management Division.  Headquartered in Dublin, she was responsible for a combination of private and corporate accounts.

Ciara graduated with honors from the Institute of Technology in Dublin receiving a National Diploma in Business Studies.  She attained her Real Estate Brokers license in June of 2005. 

Ms. Connolly is a native of Galway, Ireland and moved here to the United State in October of 2003 with her husband and three children.  Mr. Connolly is an executive in Stamford, Connecticut.  The family resides in Westport, Connecticut.

Ralph Michel Vice President

Ralph Michel was Vice President – CFO of Omega Engineering, Inc. for over 20 years. As a key member of its management team, he was responsible for financial management and the conduct of the company’s external acquisition program. In 1985, Omega formed a real estate subsidiary to develop an office park known as The River Bend Center. Mr. Michel assumed responsibility for River Bend’s real estate activities. He coordinated the development, financing and leasing of the 40-acre office park, consisting of 12 buildings and over 600,000 square feet.

Mr. Michel’s real estate experience with River Bend included numerous other property acquisitions. For example, working closely with UK economic development officials, he was responsible for the redevelopment of a 20-acre former British Steel “brownfield” site into a manufacturing center in the north of England. The project was supported by the negotiation of a grant worth in excess of $5,000,000. Another project entailed the acquisition, renovation, financing and leasing of over 100,000 square feet of medical and professional office space in Stamford.

Mr. Michel has extensive experience in the development process having presented before countless Boards and Commissions throughout Connecticut.

Mr. Michel has a BA degree with a major in economics and an MBA degree with a concentration in professional accounting, both from Cornell University. Following graduation, he worked for seven years as an accountant with Price Waterhouse and is a CPA.

Ralph Michel is married with three children and one granddaughter and resides in Easton, Connecticut.

William (Bill) W. Simson Vice President

Bill Simson joins the HK Group with over 30 years of high technology business experience. He successfully held a wide variety positions at IBM for over 27 years in sales and sales management, business and product development, customer business planning, market research/planning and financial and personnel management. Included in his experiences were lease and fit-up negotiations while managing a large systems sales branch in Portland, Maine.

Prior to working for IBM and McDonnell Douglass Automation, Mr. Simson served in the US Navy as a Naval Officer inNorfolk/Portsmouth, VA. He managed large government construction projects and was a Public Works Officer managing a 100 person staff in support of a 1,000 bed naval hospital. He also directed a three-shift computer operation that tracked Soviet submarines in the Atlantic Ocean.

Mr. Simson is a graduate of Union College, Schenectady, NY receiving a B.S. in Civil Engineering and has a M.S. in Engineering Management from the George Washington University, Washington, DC.

He has three grown children and currently resides in Redding, CT.

Tom Long Vice President

Tom Long of Westport has recently joined HK Group, a full service commercial real estate firm with offices in Westport and Stamford. He has extensive experience in commercial real estate leasing, residential property management, and corporate administrative suppor services.

Mr. Long began his career in commercial real estate with Pyramid Real Estate Group in Stamford in 1985. During his time there he focused on office and retail leasing representing numerous national clients such as: Paychex Inc., Mass. Mutual, Olde Discount Brokerage, and Quick & Reilly.

After his tenure with Pyramid, Mr. Long worked as a broker at Mont Management in Stamford, and subsequently obtained his Broker’s license.

Greg Romano Sales Associate

Greg Romano joined HK Group in April 2006. He works in our Stamford, Connecticut office as a Sales Associate.

Greg worked in the financial services industry before coming to HK Group. Most recently, he was an investment advisor with Advest Inc. At Advest, Greg was part of a team of advisors that managed in excess of $200 million.

Greg is graduate of the University of Notre Dame. He received a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Notre Dame.

Involved with youth sports, Greg is a coach with Stamford Youth Hockey Association.

Greg lives in Stamford, his hometown.

Kate Lynch Sales Associate

Kate Lynch joined HK Group as a Sales Associate in January 2007.

Kate’s career in real estate began in California with Los Angeles based developer, Creative Housing Associates. Working as a Project Coordinator for this New Urbanist boutique firm, she gained experience in Real Estate via RFP and RFQ submittals and new business development in the metro Los Angeles market.

Moving from Los Angeles to Bridgeport, CT, where her family roots are, she joined Urban Green Builders, a major player in Bridgeport’s downtown renaissance. Her role with Urban Green was to work with a team to market the project and lease commercial space.

Prior to Real Estate, Kate held an array of positions in advertising, internet and video production work, which brought her to Boston, New York, Madrid, Barcelona, Havana and Los Angeles.

A graduate of Simmons College in Boston, receiving a BA in Communications and Spanish, she has done post grad work at UCLA and EICTV, Havana. Currently she is pursuing the CCIM designation.

Kate lives in Bridgeport.

Peter Jennings Director Commercial and Residential Property Management Services

His real estate career started with Cross & Brown in the Westport branch office in 1982, as a real estate broker and property manager. He manages many office, retail, institutional, industrial and residential properties, and is solely responsible for the development of this department at HK Group. He is known for his construction and management skills.

A graduate of St. Vincent's College, he is a member of the Disaster Health Services Team for the American Red Cross, and a CPR/BLS Instructor for the American Heart Association. He is actively involved with Westport Historical Society, as a member of the Board Of Directors, overseeing the Jennings Trail historical route in Westport, and as an associate of the Wheeler House.

He lives in the Green Farms section of Westport with his wife, Ruth, and two daughters.