James Prendamano

James Prendamano has earned a reputation as a decisive voice in American real estate, known for turning complex visions into tangible projects that lift communities and endure. As founder and chief executive officer of PreReal Investments and PreReal Prendamano Real Estate, he has overseen more than $1 billion in transactional real estate and more than one million square feet of leasing across residential, commercial, and mixed-use portfolios. His career spans everything from high-density development in New York City to ambitious revitalization projects across the American Southwest. He approaches real estate holistically, considering the economy, region, property, people, purpose, and surrounding ecosystem to create projects that balance market opportunity, community well-being, and long-term sustainability. This holistic perspective, examining every project through macro, micro, and human lenses, has become the hallmark of his leadership and strategy, reinforcing his conviction that real estate should be a platform for transformation and a catalyst for long-range economic health.

In New York, Prendamano established himself in one of the country’s most demanding regulatory environments. He became known for navigating the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure with rigor and patience, building coalitions among public agencies, private capital, and community stakeholders. That experience positioned him to lead projects that required both strategic vision and near-term execution under real world constraints. His work on Staten Island Urby advanced a contemporary model of mixed use living that combines residences, neighborhood retail, and public realm improvements in a way that revitalizes underused waterfront land. His leadership at South Shore Commons brought a struggling center back to life with smart re-merchandising, national tenant recruitment, and a plan that looked beyond immediate leasing to stabilize the asset for a full cycle. Across these and other redevelopments, he emphasized design that reflects the surrounding community and operating plans that can withstand economic swings.

 

Institutional partners have taken notice.
Goldman Sachs, BFC Partners and Ironstate Development Company are among the firms that have engaged with James Prendamano on complex assignments, a sign of trust earned through consistent performance in a market that rewards clarity and punishes shortcuts. Appointed by multiple New York City mayors, borough presidents, and council members across administrations, city leaders have signaled that same confidence. Prendamano has served on the New York City Industrial Development Agency Audit Committee,  Build NYC Resource Corporation Audit Committee, and contributed to the city’s panel on reopening post-COVID where his focus on practical recovery and long horizon planning aligned with municipal objectives to restore jobs and investment while modernizing systems.

Expanding Vision: From New York to New Mexico

Success in New York laid the foundation for James Prendamano’s next chapter. After decades of shaping large-scale urban redevelopment projects, he turned his focus to Sierra County, New Mexico, convinced that rural markets deserve the same level of expertise, discipline, and vision found in major metropolitan areas. Through PreReal Investments, he led an all-equity commitment exceeding $55 million to acquire and reposition a diverse portfolio of real estate assets spanning residential, commercial, hospitality, and undeveloped land. Each investment was selected for its long-term potential to create jobs, strengthen local economies, and enhance quality of life.

 

At the center of this vision stands Turtleback Mountain Golf & Resort, formerly Sierra del Rio, a once-neglected golf property transformed into a regional hub of recreation, community, and economic renewal. Under PreReal’s leadership, the course and clubhouse underwent a full renovation, supported by plans for housing, wellness, and broadband infrastructure that connect the resort to the broader county economy. Turtleback Mountain Golf & Resort is also planned for the development of 1,300 new homes and a wide range of resort amenities, including hospitality, dining, and wellness facilities designed to serve both residents and visitors. The transformation earned national recognition when the PGA of America’s Sun Country Section selected Turtleback to host the New Mexico Open from 2025 through 2027. The 2025 tournament generated more than 11.3 million earned media impressions, including 24 hours of Facebook Live coverage, over 100 news stories, and 1,700 volunteer hours. Turtleback’s resurgence elevated the prestige of the New Mexico Open and positioned Sierra County as a growing destination for outdoor recreation, hospitality, residential relocation, and investment.

 

Investment Philosophy
Prendamano’s investment philosophy is straightforward. He leads with equity. That decision aligns his risk with the outcome of the work and signals accountability to investors who may join later. He prefers measured timelines and patient capital to structures that prioritize short term exit over long-term value. He looks for places where infrastructure is improving and where public and private leadership are willing to collaborate. He values design choices that reduce operating costs and environmental footprint. He expects project teams to be transparent with data and disciplined with budgets. He balances ambition with contingency so that plans can be adjusted without losing the original intent.

That philosophy extends to how he defines success. Revenue and occupancy matter, but they are not sufficient. In his view, a successful development leaves a community more resilient and more attractive to the next wave of investment. It adds jobs and skills. It improves the built environment and the experience of daily life. It respects local character and natural resources. It sets a standard that others can follow. Those benchmarks shape the way PreReal evaluates acquisitions, selects partners, and communicates with public officials and residents.

 

Recognition Has Followed
Prendamano has been named among the Top 100 Leaders in Real Estate by the World Real Estate and Construction Forum, and he is a multi-year CoStar Power Broker. City and State has repeatedly listed him on the Staten Island Power 100 and its broader Top 100 Power List. He has received the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation’s 20 Under 40 Leadership Award, along with the Community Lamplight Award and the Small Business of the Year Award from business organizations on the island. These honors reflect performance, but they also reflect a pattern of civic engagement. He gives time to boards that shape policy and to forums where business and government share data and ideas.

The work in New York and New Mexico illustrates what Prendamano believes about the role of developers and investors. He argues that capital should be deployed with discipline and empathy. He encourages teams to consider the full life cycle of an asset and to model both upside and stress scenarios with honesty. He presses for operations that treat customers and staff with respect. He favors suppliers and contractors who are reliable and who deliver workmanship that reduces future maintenance. He asks lenders to view projects as part of a regional portfolio rather than as isolated deals. He supports public partnerships that are clear about goals and timelines. The result is a network of relationships built on performance and shared expectations.

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The Real Problem with James Prendamano Podcast
The Real Problem with James Prendamano challenges everything we think we know about politics, power, and truth … it is a reckoning. Each week, Prendamano moves beyond the headlines to uncover the machinery of corruption eroding America from within, while examining the deeper human crisis that allows it to persist. 

With the same discipline and empathy, he brings to real estate and education, he explores how the relentless pursuit of power mirrors the conflict within individuals and institutions alike. From the halls of Congress to the boardrooms and neighborhoods where policy becomes personal, Prendamano dissects how systems fail and how people can reclaim their agency.  Through raw monologues, expert interviews, and unfiltered conversation, The Real Problem strips away partisan theater to reveal the moral and psychological patterns behind politics. The podcast challenges listeners to confront uncomfortable truths about leadership, responsibility, and the shared illusions that shape public life. Its goal is not to assign blame, but to ignite awareness, because the real problem, as Prendamano insists, cannot be solved until it is understood.

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The PreReal Podcast
Separate from The Real Problem, The PreReal Podcast centers on real estate as both an investment discipline and a driver of community growth. With more than 180 episodes reaching listeners in over 60 countries, the show delivers straightforward conversations about investment strategy, land use, cost segregation, capital markets, construction, leadership, and policy. Guests include developers, lenders, asset managers, and public officials who share insights on how real decisions shape real outcomes.

Serving as a companion to The Prendamano Academy, the podcast bridges education and execution, giving listeners a window into how experts think through complex challenges and turn principles into practice. It highlights macro, micro, and site-level thinking, a holistic approach to real estate that connects local design to regional planning and national economics. Each episode amplifies the voices of regional leaders whose work rarely receives national attention yet offers scalable models of progress, sustainability, and long-term value creation.

Education: The Prendamano Academy
While his real estate work is substantial, Prendamano’s ambitions reach deep into education. He founded The Prendamano Academy to make professional-level real estate knowledge available to anyone with the desire to learn. It is free and permanent. The Academy includes more than 100 video lessons, along with templates, models and case studies that walk-through acquisition, financing, entitlement, development, leasing and asset management. The program begins with people, asking each participant to define their personal Why, identify their Gifts, articulate their Core Values, practice Manifesting goals, and develop their unique Vision before moving into technical real estate skills. These first five modules form the Academy’s foundation and reflect Prendamano’s belief that success in any field begins by building better people first.

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The Academy serves a wide audience. First-time homebuyers use it to understand financing and due diligence. New investors use it to evaluate risk and build their first pro forma. Experienced operators use it to sharpen acquisition criteria and improve reporting. Students use it to explore careers and practice the language of the field. Small-business owners use it to negotiate leases and plan expansions. Lessons include step-by-step guides for letters of intent, sample lease provisions, underwriting worksheets and checklists for environmental, title and survey review. Modules on negotiation, communication and emotional intelligence make the technical learning more practical in daily business.

 

A Resource Center supports the course content with worksheets, exercises and interactive tools that help participants put concepts into action. Case studies reflect both wins and losses from Prendamano’s portfolio, with an emphasis on what the team learned and how those lessons shaped future decisions. The tone is practical and candid. New integrations of artificial intelligence allow students to simulate real-world decision-making and receive dynamic feedback, while an AI-powered assistant helps users refine analyses and track progress over time. AI continues to evolve as a core component of the Academy’s curriculum, ensuring participants stay current with emerging technology and future-of-work trends. The goal is for students to see how disciplined thinking, technological literacy and clear values translate into measurable results.

Prendamano’s Emphasis on Education Reform and Term Limits
Prendamano’s education work rests on a broader view of how systems evolve. He argues that too many institutions prepare students to react to current conditions rather than plan for the future. He believes reform at the classroom level will not take hold until the foundation of education itself is renewed. That renewal, he says, must include modernizing outdated curricula and integrating AI literacy, critical thinking and future-of-work readiness into every stage of learning. In his view, these changes are tied to political reform. He supports term limits at the federal and state levels, arguing that regular turnover in government reduces institutional inertia and opens space for policy that reflects present realities. Without fresh perspectives in legislatures and executive offices, he believes structural reform in education will stall and students will continue being trained for a world that no longer exists.

That stance has practical implications for how he operates. In real estate, it means being honest about what works, what doesn’t and what must be revised. In education, it means giving away information that others guard, because access accelerates progress. In public life, it means engaging policymakers while staying grounded in first principles. In leadership, it means inviting feedback, admitting mistakes and adjusting course. He is candid about moments when he pushed too hard, delegated too slowly or underestimated the friction that change creates. He treats those moments as training…building systems that grow stronger because the people within them are trusted to speak, learn and improve the plan.

 

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