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Posts Tagged ‘Cornell’

Today, we’re excited to feature Part Two of our video interview with Jane Gol, president of Continental Ventures Realty. She discusses Manhattan’s busy real estate market and her work with New York City’s Planning Commission. (Go here to see Part One!)

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A new year means the results of last year’s real estate competitions are beginning to trickle in. Of course, the finals for MIT’s annual case competition aren’t until April, and the Philadelphia Real Estate Council’s Student White Paper Competition just wrapped up its submission period. But a high-profile competition on the urban planning side has already announced its winners.

The Philadelphia Center for Architecture recently announced the results of its 2013 Ed Bacon Student Design Competition. This year’s winner is a team from Cornell University (which has a pesky habit of winning these things), with additional jury prizes going to the University of Maryland, University of Nottingham (UK), University of Tennessee, and National University of Singapore. Congratulations to Cornell’s team: Logan Axelson, Caleb Cheng, Katherine Li, Jesse Nicholson, and Travis North!

Since the competition is run by the Philadelphia Center for Architecture, each year’s challenge is, of course, focused on one of Philadelphia’s complex planning opportunities. Previous contests have focused on the I-95 corridor on the east of the city and brownfield reclamation in the city’s Gray’s Ferry area. The 2013 challenge focuses on the transportation infrastructure and neighborhood to the west of the Schuylkill river (between Spring Garden and South Street). Here’s a brief excerpt from the competition’s overview: Read the rest of this entry »

Mensch:

Noun, informal. A decent, upright, mature and responsible person.

Schlemiel:

Noun, slang. An awkward, clumsy, or unlucky person whose endeavors tend to fail; a loser.

Mensch of the Week:

Larry Silverstein

This week’s Mensch is Larry Silverstein, the Manhattan developer best known for his work rebuilding the World Trade Center–exemplified by the “Freedom Tower” now nearing completion. Recently, the Cornell Real Estate Journal honored Mr. Silverstein with its 2012 Industry Leader Award. As explained in this year’s CREJ:

Mr. Silverstein has undoubtedly influenced the Manhattan skyline time and again. …Notably, Mr. Silverstain and his team are transforming Lower Manhattan by rebuilding the World Trade Center and creating a lasting legacy for all New Yorkers and Americans…” Read the rest of this entry »

 Mensch: Noun, informal. A decent, upright, mature and responsible person.

Schlemiel: Noun, slang. An awkward, clumsy, or unlucky person whose endeavors tend to fail; a loser.

Mensches of the Week:

Larry Page & Sergey Brin

Sure, they’ve taken over the Internet, plus everyone’s personal information and search histories, in preparation for their inevitable domination of humanity. But they also give us lots of playful Google Doodles, which everyone agrees are pretty cool and make them worthy of mensch-hood. On top of that, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are making a sizable contribution to New York City’s emergence as a technology hub.

Back in December, I discussed the city’s competition to plan a research campus on Roosevelt Island. A design submitted jointly by Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology beat a number of high-profile competitors, and the two schools have been awarded the space and millions in city funding to bring a world-class technology research campus to Roosevelt Island. Of course, a project of such scope won’t spring up overnight, and this is where the executives from Google come in. Read the rest of this entry »

Last Monday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the winner of New York City’s competition to develop a new applied sciences center on Roosevelt Island.

And the winner is…

Cornell University, partnering with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, is the winner of an 11-acre section of the island. The universities’ $2 billion plan, designed by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, beat out such competition as Columbia, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon. The project is funded in part by billionaire philanthropist and Cornell grad Charles Feeney, who amassed his fortune as a pioneer in the “duty-free shopping” industry.

The high-tech, environmentally innovative campus is expected to turn Roosevelt Island, one of New York’s least-populated and least-developed areas, into a technology hub that will compete with Stanford and other West Coast centers of innovation. Read the rest of this entry »

Jerry K. Roller AIA, LEED AP
Principal
JKR Partners LLC

Jerry founded JKR Partners, LLC as full-service architectural firm on the belief that the needs of the client come first. At JKR Partners, design teams are formed with sensitivity to the special requirements and potential complexities of a particular project. Growing from a two-person firm in 1984, to the diverse team of 24 design professionals in Center City, Philadelphia. A Philadelphia native and graduate of Cornell University, Jerry is active in the American Institute of Architects, serving as President of AIA-PA and holding the posts of Regional Director and Vice President on the National AIA Board. He also serves on the Program Committee and Executive Committee of ULI Philadelphia District Council.

Q: As a company, tell me about the niche you have carved out for yourself and how you feel you are different from the competition. Why do you think clients find your product type more appealing than alternatives? Read the rest of this entry »

Robert J. Hellman
Managing Director, Real Estate
David Landau & Associates, LLC

Rob Hellman has over 30 years of professional experience, including 27 years in the real estate and financial services industries. Prior to joining DLA, he was a Managing Director at Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group, working with clients to structure their capital needs and source debt and joint venture/preferred equity for real estate acquisitions and development. He began his career in real estate as part of Lehman Brothers’ efforts to raise equity and debt for real estate investment transactions. During his 16 years at Lehman Brothers, he also served as president and/or chief executive officer for several public real estate funds that acquired over seven million square feet of retail space, 1.8 million square feet of commercial space and over 1,600 multifamily residential units. Rob also sat on the investment and risk management committee of Lehman’s Diversified Asset Group responsible for approving dispositions, major lease transactions and financing decisions. Following his career at Lehman Brothers, Rob became a Senior Managing Director at Newmark & Company Real Estate, Inc., where he was a Principal of Newmark Capital Group and the firm’s Retail Financial Advisors. He subsequently formed Riverstreet Realty Advisors. Among his DLA engagements, Rob has been retained as head of asset management for a major real estate investor owning a $2.5 billion portfolio in the US.

Q: As a company, tell me about the niche you have carved out for yourself and how you feel you are different from the competition. Why do you find this product type more appealing than alternative real estate asset classes?
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Despite 22 year record high national vacancy rate of 7.8%, the multi-family sector has performed well compared to other asset classes. Several multifamily properties have recently traded at 6.5% cap rates, demonstrating investor confidence in this market sector. I am bullish on the multifamily sector for several reasons.

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