Born in Pikesville, MD, Mark grew up in a family rooted in the automotive business. His father was a car dealer, but Mark knew his future lay elsewhere. After graduating from the University of Maryland, he got a job with Consumer Life Credit, where he was first introduced to the world of real estate.
From 1982 through the next decade, Mark worked alongside several prominent Maryland real estate families, gaining hands-on experience that shaped the foundation of his career. Reflecting on those years, Mark says, “I got my doctorate in real estate from those families.”
The economy went sour in 1993 and Mark found himself needing to pivot, so he set out on his own and started Rock Realty LLC. “I told myself I wasn’t going to pioneer land or build houses,” Mark recalls. “But of course, those were the first two developments I was involved with as an owner…I always took the long view.”
Early in his career, Mark was fortunate to meet a partner who initially financed the majority of their projects. As the company grew and success followed, the partnership evolved into an equal 50/50 relationship. To date, Mark and his partner have built dozens of commercial projects, and the company owns 4000 lots that feed their ever-growing development pipeline.
Mark has known Pete Pecoraro, Spring Garden Lending’s Senior Vice President and Market Leader in Baltimore, for years. When it came time to finance a 63-unit age-restricted community in Howard County—followed by another 78-unit age-restricted development in late 2025—the decision to work with Pete and his team was an easy one.
