Feed

Real Estate Board of New York

By Daniel Geiger 1/17 1:00pm

power broker

Angela Pinsky. (Photo by Kiki Conway)

What Does Seth Pinsky’s Wife Know About Real Estate? A Lot, It Turns Out.

Perhaps the best way to describe Angela Pinsky’s advocacy for the real estate industry is by saying that when she joined the Real Estate Board of New York almost two years ago, she didn’t see her job as much different from the one she was leaving in the mayor’s office.

“I work on a lot of the same issues,” said Ms. Pinsky, who married Economic Development Corporation head Seth Pinsky last summer. “The thing about the real estate industry, it’s very civic minded. Many owners are family businesses and there’s this strong tradition in the industry of wanting projects and policies that are best not just for the industry’s own interests, but for the entire city.

Read More

1 By Daniel Edward Rosen 1/17 12:55pm

Commercial Observer

January 4, 2012 (8)

An Evening at the Liar’s Ball: Raucous Behavior! Bottles of Colgin at the 21 Club! Talking Over the Cardinal?

It was a typical evening at the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual gala as John Cardinal O’Connor stepped up to the dais to address a crowd of several thousand of the city’s most ambitious commercial real estate brokers and owners.

But in a ritual repeated more or less each year, the archbishop of the New York archdiocese’s 2.37 million Catholics and one of the Vatican’s most forceful spokesmen in the United States during the 1980s, was summarily ignored by a brokerage community far more interested in making deals than in hearing the Gospel.

Read More

By Robert Knakal 1/17 12:30pm

concrete thoughts

Robert Knakal.

A Love Letter To REBNY

Throughout my career, I have been active in many different trade organizations and have always made networking a significant component of my annual brokerage business plan. Networking can take many forms. In 2011, I chalked up 264 such events, or more than one per business day on average. Clearly, this aspect of my business plan is something that I focus great attention on, as business opportunities frequently seem to be generated from these interactions.

While there are many wonderful trade organizations out there, one of the best, and one of the most beneficial and productive for my firm and I has been the Real Estate Board of New York.

Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 1/17 10:30am

Commercial Observer

Bernard Resnick, Sheldon Silver and Steven Spinola, circa 1996.

Reeling in the Years With the Real Estate Board of New York: In their own words, brokers and owners tell the tale of REBNY’s past half century

Since it started with a roll call of 27 members in 1896 with the goal of “facilitating transactions in real estate,” the Real Estate Board of New York has indisputably been the city’s most influential real estate organization, with its annual gala being to brokers what the Vanity Fair Oscar party is for Hollywood: If you’re there, it means you’re somebody.

Sure, some may lovingly write it off as a veritable men’s club (men are thought to outnumber women five to one), chide it as “The Liar’s Ball” (each year is a broker’s best year, no matter how wretched the marketplace) and speak ill of the food (nearly everyone avoids the chicken and filet mignon).

But the REBNY gala is as essential to a real estate person’s reputation and status as the buildings and bricks he works with. A dozen of the city’s most legendary players spoke to The Commercial Observer about the blurry nights and boom years that helped make the event what it is today. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 5/24/11 3:13pm

the sit-down

Leonard Boxer on REBNY, Rent Regs and Nixon’s Desk

As the partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan credited with essentially designing the law firm's real estate practice, Leonard Boxer has worked with the city's largest real estate owners and developers. As REBNY's general counsel, meanwhile, the 72-year-old attorney has been advising the group in the rent-regulation debate. Last week Mr. Boxer spoke about Read More

2 By Tom Acitelli 4/26/11 3:30pm

Big Real Estate

Trump on REBNY: ‘I’m Not a Joiner’

Our politics desk is putting together a piece for tomorrow's paper on Donald Trump, the presumptive presidential candidate. But what about Mr. Trump, the real estate tycoon? Or, more to the point, what about Mr. Trump, the local real estate tycoon?

He's always kind of been of New York, but not so much in it, the Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 3/01/11 8:47pm

ingenies

Ingenie Nominees Announced!

The contenders for commercial real estate's top prize, the so-called "Ingenious Deal of the Year" award, were unveiled by the Real Estate Board of New York today, with name checks coming in for each of the city's top firms.

CB Richard Ellis led all comers with four nominees, notably a deal for Mercedes Benz' new flagship Read More

By Laura Kusisto 11/08/10 6:02pm

Retail

Party Time in Times Square! Retail Rents Soar

Think twice before you elbow a tourist in Times Square. Rents in the wanna-be hotspot just soared 21 percent, thanks to the city's tourism boom.

Retailers in the area are now paying upward of $1,700 a square foot annually, according to a quarterly report from the Real Estate Board of New York that came out this morning. That's still Read More

By Eliot Brown 8/11/10 8:58pm

Disunion

REBNY Attacks City’s Plan to Limit Hampton Inns in Tribeca

The Bloomberg administration's plan to limit the spread of hotels in north Tribeca is drawing fire from the real estate industry.

The Real Estate Board of New York, the industry's chief advocacy group, today put out testimony rather critical of a new special provision for hotels contained within the planned North Tribeca rezoning, calling it "disturbing Read More

By Eliot Brown 7/26/10 7:19pm

Time to Make the Sausage

Big Real Estate Warms to Senate Dems

For many years in Albany, a town with many an uncertainty, there was one constant: Joe Bruno was the majority leader in the Senate, and the New York City real estate world was a loyal benefactor. The industry was a steadfast supporter of that Republican majority, and poured campaign contributions into Republican coffers (and not, Read More

By William Alden 11:44am

Vito Lopez vs. Brooklyn’s ‘Gold Coast’

Tuesday's hearing on the 421-a Property Tax Exemption Program almost didn't happen.

"When we mailed out the notice and we reached out to a lot of people, there was almost no response," Vito Lopez, chairman of the state Assembly's housing committee, said. "So it's quite interesting."

At issue was whether 421-a, which gives tax breaks Read More