Senior Accountant

Company Overview

The Lightstone Group, LLC, or Lightstone, founded by David Lichtenstein, is one of the most diversified privately held real estate companies in the United States. Headquartered in New York City, Lightstone is active in 27 states across the country, developing, managing and investing in all sectors of the real estate market, including residential, hospitality, commercial, and retail. With 209 existing properties, Lightstone’s over $9 billion portfolio currently includes over 13 million square feet of industrial, life sciences, and commercial properties, over 25,000 residential units, and over 5,100 hotel keys. Lightstone’s development portfolio includes over $3.5 billion currently under development in the residential and hospitality sectors spread across New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami.

Position Overview

Lightstone currently owns and manages large portfolios of properties across multiple real estate asset classes. The Senior Accountant, Corporate is primarily responsible for supporting the consolidation and financial reporting environment for the Company’s public and private issuers. The position is highly visible throughout the Company and will take ownership of a broad range of accounting matters. Excellent verbal and written communication skills; ability to collaborate cross-departmentally; effectively multi-task and prioritize assigned duties and responsibilities in order to meet challenging deadlines; and attention to detail are amongst the required qualifications.

This position is full-time and exempt. The Senior Accountant, Corporate will be based at the Company’s Lakewood, New Jersey office. This position may require occasional travel and reports to the Company’s Manager of Accounting, Corporate.

Essential Functions

The Senior Accountant, Corporate will primarily:

• Take ownership and manage the consolidation process for public registrants, including preparing the consolidated financial statements/related footnote disclosures and maintaining the books/records for corporate entities.
• Ensure timely and accurate preparation of financial reports in accordance with US GAAP and/or IFRS.
• Assist in month-end, quarter-end, and year-end closing activities
• Work with business owners throughout the Company to ensure proper accruals.
• Analyze financial data to identify variances, trends, and discrepancies to provide management with operational highlights.
• Complete requests from external auditors in connection with quarterly reviews and annual audits.
• Review, evaluate and document internal controls over processing of both routine and nonroutine transactions.
• Identify opportunities to streamline the consolidation and reporting processes.
• Support cash management duties and contribute to the Company’s cash management strategy, including periodically initiating and posting wires and account transfers.
• Assist with budget and forecast preparation.
• Conduct accounting research and analyses on an ad hoc basis.
• Prepare and record consolidation journal entries and reconciliations for month-end closing.
• Provide day-to-day operational support (e.g., reviewing invoices, resolving vendor issues, etc.) and oversee the timely and accurate processing of vendor invoices and bills.
• Assist in other areas of corporate accounting and special projects as required.
  
  
  

Qualifications

• Three to five years of total work experience.
• Bachelor degree or equivalent in accounting, finance, business and/or similar field is required.
• Public accounting experience and/or CPA designation is preferred.
• REIT experience or consolidation and reporting experience is required.
• Comprehensive understanding of US GAAP accounting and IFRS accounting is required.
• Excellent communication skills are required. Must be able to effectively present to and interact with both internal and external personnel.
• Strong computer skills are required, including advanced proficiency in MS Office applications, particularly Excel.
• Experience with MRI, Yardi and/or other commercial real estate accounting software systems is required.
• Must be well-organized with the ability to excel in a dynamic work environment.
• Must have a strong work ethic with the ability to work independently.
• Must be able to multi-task and manage a challenging workload while consistently meeting stringent deadlines.