When the Real Estate Board of New York talks, the politicians listen. The oldest and most influential trade association in the city represents a who’s who of landowners, building investors and owners, real estate executives and service professionals.
If you already own a piece of city turf, want to invest in the “Capital of the World” or do business with any of the owners, you make it your business to belong to REBNY or to use a REBNY member to do your business.
Along with the owners, REBNY’s members include residential and commercial brokers and managers, financial service companies, title companies, lawyers, accountants, architects, bankers, utilities and media companies like The Post.
The organization’s goals are to unite those interested in real estate and the welfare of the city and state by facilitating negotiations, maintaining the highest ethical standards, promoting fair laws and public improvements, and creating a healthy economy that will thus generate jobs and equitable taxes.
While REBNY’s membership has grown to over 17,000 — up 1,000 in each of the last two years — only about 2,200 of them will fit into tonight’s 120th Annual Banquet at the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel & Towers on the Avenue of the Americas. Each of the coveted tickets now costs a sky-high $1,100.
While younger and newer members cannot always afford the prized ducats, they still swarm the Hilton hallways and attend other hosted parties in black ties and fancy dresses. They all want to be seen and hope to bump into industry leaders to exchange business cards that can lead to future dealings; or better, score an entry card for the main event that is informally known as The Liar’s Ball.
REBNY members are intimately involved in crucial city matters including the formulation of tax policy, city planning and zoning, landmarking and land use policy, rental and conversion regulations and conditions, building codes and legislation that makes the city safer and greener. In addition, REBNY publishes several reports providing indicators of market pricing in residential, retail and commercial sectors. REBNY members serve those from all over the world seeking to live, invest or park their dollars in the safest spot on the globe.
At tonight’s dinner, REBNY will honor a distinguished group of individuals who have demonstrated continued commitment to the city and the industry. The Stacoms — Matthew, Tara and Darcy — will become the first family to receive the Lifetime Leadership Award. The other honorees are Daniel Brodsky, Jeffrey Levine, Bill Montana, Edward Piccinich and Steven Marvin. A special posthumous tribute will honor former REBNY Chairman John E. Zuccotti.
Chairman Rob Speyer will preside for the fourth time over the lively and generally raucous event.
An earlier VIP cocktail party hosts the dais guests and includes REBNY’s Board of Governors, the evening’s honorees and often the state’s governor, the mayor, various deputies, commissioners and staffers, the City Council speaker, a sprinkling of council members and, of course, other appointed and elected officials such as senators and congressmen, who all end up creating a security detail gridlock. Last year, Sen. Chuck Schumer took to the podium in a comfy sweater and khakis just to honor outgoing REBNY President Steven Spinola after coming straight from a retreat near Washington.
Longtime city-based family developers hold court at their tables in the front of the room, and every company has the same location each year — much like season tickets to the opera and ball games. Most guests spend more time mingling than chowing down at their own tables and rarely pay attention to what goes on at the dais.
This will be new REBNY President John Banks’ first banquet, and guests will be watching to see how he fills the “shush” of former President Spinola, who always tried but rarely succeeded in quieting the yakking crowd during the 30-minute award ceremony.
Years ago, one newly elected governor walked out in a huff when the audience ignored his attempt at a long-winded speech. Things won’t be any different tonight.
THE GEORGE M. BROOKER MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
Edward V. Piccinich, Executive Vice President of SL Green Realty Corp.
In his role with SL Green Realty Corp., one of the city’s largest commercial property owners, Piccinich manages over 30.6 million square feet. He and his team oversee construction, property management, security and life safety, underwriting and information technology. He is also responsible for the development of One Vanderbilt, a new 1.6 million-square-foot tower that will overlook and will be interconnected underground to Grand Central Terminal.
“I’ve been with this team for nearly 15 years and it feels like 15 minutes,” said Piccinich. “I enjoy training the new generation of leaders. They are very well-educated, and their learning capacity is second to none.”
Since he joined SL Green in 2002, he and his team have achieved industry recognition with The New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award, the New York Construction Award for Industry Impact, and numerous BOMA Pinnacle and TOBY awards. Many projects that result in operating efficiencies have been driven by discussions that start at a REBNY roundtable. “But you as an owner have to take it on to the next level,” Piccinich explained.
Piccinich previously served as a Vice President with JPMorgan and was General Manager of Operations of the World Trade Center for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. After the 1993 terrorist attack, he was awarded the Medal of Valor.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors for REBNY, the New York Building Congress, Realty Advisory Board, Urban Green Council, the Alliance for Downtown New York and Hackensack University Medical Center. He also works with several non-profits including St. Francis Food Pantries & Shelters.
Piccinich earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Manhattan College. He and his wife, Roseanne, live in New York City with their children, Amy, Carly and Derek.
“I’ve been a part of REBNY dating back to the early 2000s,” he recalled. “You learn a lot. We are in a business that is 24/7/365, but I live it with passion and enthusiasm.”
THE KENNETH R. GERRETY HUMANITARIAN AWARD
Jeffrey E. Levine, Chairman, Douglaston Development, Levine Builders and Clinton Management
Since starting his companies in 1979, Levine has directed the new construction and rehabilitation of thousands of residential units, including both affordable and luxury housing, student housing, hotels, senior living, health care facilities and millions of square feet of commercial, retail, office and institutional properties.
He is now completing the final 550 residential units at the 1.5 million-square-foot Edge along the Williamsburg waterfront.
Levine is a member of REBNY’s Executive Committee and believes his longtime REBNY membership has assisted with his career and companies.
“As my business evolved, I found more and more of the obstacles I was being confronted with were not new. There were a number of members that could offer me counsel,” recalled Levine. “These are people who have a great deal of knowledge and experience.”
Along with REBNY, he participates in numerous real estate organizations. He is currently Vice Chair of the Associated Builders and Owners of Greater New York and a Vice Chair of the Building Congress. He is a founding member of the New York State Association for Affordable Housing and the Kimmel Foundation, which promotes affordable housing and services for aged, handicapped, and special-needs populations.
He serves on the Board of Directors of the Citizens Housing and Planning Council, the NY Housing Conference, and the Chamber of Commerce of the Borough of Queens.
In 2005, under Mike Bloomberg, Levine was appointed to the Mayor’s Commission on Construction Opportunity.
“Everyone has the same goal of being able to do business,” Levine noted. “I love [building] rentals but it is hard to achieve unless you can buy at the right pro forma. Organized labor needs to be more flexible for market-rate units and certainly affordable housing.”
He and his projects have also received numerous honors. These include the 2012 Israel Peace Medal from the Development Corporation for Israel. He is the National President of the Jewish National Fund and a member of the National Board which honored him with its Tree of Life award.
Levine graduated from the City University of New York’s City College School of Architecture and currently lives in New York with his wife Randi and his three children, Benjamin, Jessica, and Dara.
THE HARRY B. HELMSLEY DISTINGUISHED NEW YORKER AWARD
Daniel Brodsky, Senior Managing Partner, Brodsky Organization
A Vice Chairman of REBNY’s Executive Committee and a Governor of the organization, Brodsky’s involvement with the city’s major cultural and educational institutions reads like an ad for the Big Apple.
Even as his family firm develops and operates 7,000 units of primarily rental housing along with its retail space, Brodsky volunteers on numerous boards and advises the organization on its real estate projects.
“If you care about the city, you want to be involved in the cultural institutions,” Brodsky explained.
As the current Chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he is overseeing the reconstruction and expansion of the Southwest Wing, and the reinvention of the former Whitney Museum structure into The Met Breuer — named after its architect, Marcel Breuer — that will open March 18.
He is also a current board member of the New York City Ballet.
Past board affiliations include those at Lincoln Center, the American Museum of Natural History, the Municipal Art Society and Project Renewal, which provides shelter for the homeless.
His participation on educational boards has included at New York University, where he obtained a masters in urban planning.
While his son attended Dalton, it needed help with a real estate project, and he joined its board.
That participation led to stints on the boards of The Brearley School, Riverdale Country School, St. Bernard’s School and Trinity School.
“Building one building after the other does not make the city,” Brodsky insisted. “It is much more complex than that. A healthy city, a safe city, a city that has great museums and great parks and is clean — all of that is very, very important to all of us who live in the city and to the real estate industry.”
Brodsky added: “The city would not be getting 55 million tourists if we didn’t have all of those things.”
Young Real Estate Man of the Year Award
Steven H. Marvin, Executive Managing Director and Partner, Olmstead Properties
Selected by the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association of New York and presented to a member who exemplifies strong integrity, professionalism and personal ethics.
A 30-year veteran of commercial brokerage, leasing and management, Marvin is responsible for leasing and marketing a 2.5 million-square-foot portfolio in neighborhoods like SoHo, Hudson Square, City Hall, NoMad and the Garment District.
In 1993, Marvin worked on one of the city’s first loft building conversions at 584-588 Broadway. Olmstead purchased and still owns the building; the deal led to Marvin joining the firm.
Marvin also represents tenants, and has helped clients including BuzzFeed, Paperless Post, Studio Daniel Libeskind and many others relocate as they expand.
“We specialize in smaller spaces so we get to see these up-and-coming companies and have been successful in helping them grow,” Marvin said.
Working at a small firm, Marvin has found being involved with YM/WREA and REBNY allows him to interact with numerous companies and others in the industry. “It makes the transactional side much easier when you are able to personalize it,” he said. “You form friendships and that evolves into a level of trust.”
Marvin also serves on the Admissions Committee for YM/WREA; during his 12-year membership he has also participated in the Issues and Actions Committee and as a mentor.
He is a board member of The Education Alliance, the Fresh Meadow Country Club and the Hudson Square BID, and is Co-Chairman of the UJA Real Estate & Allied Trades Division’s Sites & Sounds Committee. He is a former chairman and honoree of Israel Bonds New Leadership division.
Marvin met his wife Samantha while getting his B.A. at Clark University. The couple now live in New York with their children, Lily and Aaron.
The Louis Smadbeck Broker Recognition Award
Bill Montana, Senior Managing Director, Savills Studley
Celebrates a commercial broker with exceptional personal and professional integrity, leadership, prominence in the brokerage community and service to REBNY’s committees.
Montana comes from a family of real estate owners and practitioners and was named after his grandfather, another commercial real estate broker.
“Julien Studley, who founded my firm and passed away this year, also won this award, which makes it even more gratifying,” Montana says.
Montana joined Studley in 1996 (now Savills Studley) after stints at Newmark & Company and the Edward S. Gordon Company. He has been providing advisory services to major corporations, institutions, and not-for-profit organizations since 1988 while crafting creative and innovative occupancy solutions.
Montana is a member of REBNY’s Board of Governors, a former Chairman of its Commercial Board of Directors, and serves on both the Arbitration and Ethics And Professional Practices committees. Chairman Emeritus of the Young Men’s/Women’s Real Estate Association, he was the 2013 recipient of its Young Real Estate Man of the Year Award.
“The relationships you build at both organizations are so important as you create friendship and trust,” Montana explains. “You can call and say there is a complicated situation, and then sit down and figure it out as you are considered a credible person.” Indeed, Montana is known throughout the industry as an accomplished professional with the highest degree of integrity.
Montana is also an active philanthropist and is a Knight of Columbus, 4th Degree and Deputy Grand Knight of the Greenwich, CT council, where he resides with his family.
He is an ardent fund-raiser for many charitable organizations including Stamford, Connecticut’s Shelter for the Homeless, the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis, the Starlight Foundation, the Tuberous Sclerosis Society, the United Nations Development Fund and others.
He also works with and supports Habitat for Humanity, the Central Park Conservancy, the New York Blood Center, City Harvest, New York Cares, Business Executives for National Security and Abilis, which aids people with developmental disabilities.
Montana participates in mentoring programs, and speaks to students about careers in real estate and at real estate symposiums. He is also the commercial leasing member of the Real Estate Services Alliance.
The Bernard H. Mendik Lifetime Leadership in Real Estate Award
The late Matthew Stacom, former Vice Chairman of Cushman & Wakefield; Tara Stacom, Executive Vice Chairman of Cushman & Wakefield; Darcy Stacom, Vice Chairman and Head of the Investment Properties Group for CBRE’s New York Office
For their exceptional accomplishments in the profession, leadership and service to the real estate industry over the course of their distinguished careers. This is the first time a family has been honored by REBNY.
The son of a Long Island home builder and a homemaker, Matthew Stacom, who passed away in January 2014 at age 95, had a distinguished, 67-year career at Cushman & Wakefield. He played an integral role in the development, sale and leasing of commercial properties in major cities throughout the country. His work in assembling the land and leasing led to the development and occupancy of the Sears (now Willis) Tower in Chicago.
Stacom served upon numerous REBNY committees including the Municipal Affairs and Civil Rights committees, served as Chairman of the Sales Brokers Committee and became the third Chairman of the YM/WREA. In 1962 and 1963, he won REBNY’s Most Ingenious Sales award for different projects at the same building, 219 E. 42nd Street.
An avid tennis player and swimmer, Stacom was the beloved father of six children whom he raised with his late wife, Claire Murphy, in Greenwich, CT. After the death of Claire, Stacom married Lesta Summerfield in 1983.
But perhaps his most important contributions to the industry were his two daughters, Tara and Darcy, who have become leaders in their specialties — leasing and sales, respectively.
Darcy recalls the girls obtained their real estate salespersons licenses when they were 14 and 15. “They changed the laws after that,” she said. She worked summers at Cushman & Wakefield, first on the switchboard and then listing and canvassing. Darcy turned to sales after a leasing fee dispute with her father.
Since then, the “Queen of the Skyscrapers” has racked up $60 billion in sales, financing, joint venture, leasehold and development transactions, including the $5.4 billion sale of Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village for MetLife. Her first-place 2014 Most Ingenious Deal of the Year Award complemented her four other ingenious deal awards. She is currently a REBNY Governor and has been active with numerous other organizations, including as a Board Member of the Women’s Network of CBRE and an honoree of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of New York.
“If you are going to be in this field and this career for the long run, you have to get involved in REBNY,” Darcy said.
Tara joined C&W in 1981. Since then, she has executed over 40 million square feet of leases, sales and finance transactions. As exclusive leasing agent for One World Trade Center, she signed Conde Nast as its 1.2 million-square-foot anchor. That deal led to REBNY’s Most Ingenious Deal of the Year award in 2011. “When I started, the only way to absorb knowledge from peers and owners was at REBNY and today it is augmented so substantially,” said Tara. She is on the Board of Ethan Allen Interiors, is a Director’s Circle Member of Girls, Inc., and was honored as “Woman of the Year” by the New York Executives in Real Estate (WX).
All three Stacoms are graduates of Lehigh University where Tara established and chairs Integrated Real Estate at Lehigh University (ire@l) program and its Stacom Family Speaker Series.
Tara is also a Director of the Realty Foundation of New York, and the sisters were its co-honorees in 2007, just as they are today with their late father.
