Peter J. Cocoziello

Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Advance Property Investors
Board Member, Penn State Smeal College of Business Board of Visitors

Peter J. Cocoziello '73. Celebrating 42 years as Founder, President & CEO of Advance Property Investors, Peter Cocoziello’s initial vision was to create a premier development, investment, construction and property management company.  Peter developed his first property (14,000 sq. ft. office building) in 1979.  Today, Advance is one of the most active and respected commercial real estate development, investment and management companies in the Northeast. Since its inception Advance has developed or acquired more than 15 million square feet of commercial, residential, mixed-use and industrial projects.

Peter has held leadership roles in numerous community and professional organizations including President of the Young Presidents’ Organization, the New Jersey National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NJ NAIOP); Chairman of New Jersey Network (NJN); Board of Trustees for New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, Foundation for Morristown Medical Center and NJ TV Public Media.  He currently serves on the Board of Visitors at the Smeal College of Business, Institute for Real Estate Studies and California Barrel Company LLC. Additionally, he established the Advance Realty Real Estate Lecture series at Pennsylvania State University.

Mr. Cocoziello is the recipient of major honors including Developer of the Year, The Forum for Commercial Real Estate – NAIOP; Entrepreneur of the Year, Real Estate Division – Ernst & Young, Inc. NJ; Outstanding Business People, Large Corporation – Somerset County Chamber of Commerce; Top 20 Companies – Central New Jersey Business Magazine; Humanitarian Award – National Conference for Community and Justice; Alumni Fellow Award and Distinguished Alumni Award – Pennsylvania State University; Named by Real Estate Forum Top Commercial Real Estate ICONS in the Mid-Atlantic Market, and has been recognized as NJ BIZ’s 50 Most Powerful People in Real Estate in 2012-2017; Americas Most Honored Professionals in 2015.

Peter earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Pennsylvania State University, a Senior Certificate in Mortgage Financing from New York University and completed Harvard University’s President’s Program.