Robert K. Futterman (born 1958 in Long Island, New York) was the founder, chairman & chief executive officer of Robert K. Futterman & Associates, a retail leasing, investment sales and consulting services real estate firm. Futterman has been noted as one of the most prominent and powerful names in Manhattan retail and has personally completed real estate transactions in excess of $10 billion. He has helped revitalize Manhattan neighborhoods including Union Square, the Meatpacking District, Times Square, 34th Street, Fifth Avenue, the Plaza District, and Soho. Early life and education Futterman was raised in Jericho, New York, the son of Rosalie and Louis Futterman. His mother was a painter; and his father was a businessman and manufacturer. Originally intending to get into the music business, as a student at the University of Maryland, he represented the school in negotiations with concert promoters Bill Graham (promoter) and Ron Delsener. Not seeing any opportunities in music, he left university and went to Zuma Beach in California to sell ice cream. Career In 1983, he returned to New York City to work at Garrick-Aug Associates, a Manhattan retail brokerage firm, where he earned $250 a week as a retail-store canvasser, making cold calls to landlords that had retail space for rent. He was quite successful and was soon promoted to salesman. By 1993, he was running Garrick-Aug's New York City operations. In 1998, after noticing that very few real estate firms specialized exclusively on the retail sector (landlord and tenant representation, new construction, leasing, sales, and market analysis), Futterman founded Robert K. Futterman & Associates (RKF). He has since expanded the company into one of the country's largest independent real estate firms specializing in retail leasing, consulting services, and investment sales. As of 2011, the company has arranged sales and leasing transactions valued at nearly $20 billion. RKF is headquartered at 521 Fifth Avenue in New York and also has offices in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Rutherford, New Jersey, Miami, and San Francisco. In May 2019, he was fired as the CEO of RKF due to marijuana charges. Transactions He has been involved in most vertical retail projects in New York, including Herald Center, the Manhattan Mall, The Shops at Columbus Circle at Time Warner Center, and 270 Greenwich Street (also known as 101 Warren Street); among others. Additionally, Futterman has served as an advisor to the Port Authority of New York &