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REBNY AWARDS SPECIAL

observer.com | the commercial observer24 January 19, 2010 the commercial observer | observer.com January 19, 2010 25

The Real Estate Board of New York on Jan. 21 plans to honor several commercial real estate

professionals at its 114th an-nual banquet. Four of the hon-orees are featured below, and check out on page 30 our Pow-er Broker profile of Todd Korren of Swig Equities, winner of the 2010 Young Real Estate Man of the Year Award.

Samuel H. LindenbaumCounsel, Kramer Levin Naftalis &

Frankel LLPWinner of the Harry B. Helmsley Dis-

tinguished New Yorker Award, which memorializes Helmsley, his generation’s most admired real estate executive.

Sandy Lindenbaum is of counsel to Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel and a member of its land-use department.

For more than 40 years, Mr. Linden-baum’s extensive experience in land use and zoning has been put to work in han-dling special permits, zoning changes, variances, landmark proceedings, air rights transfers, tax abatements and eco-nomic development incentives for many of the city’s most prominent commercial and residential developments and for the expansion programs of many of the city’s leading nonprofit institutions.

His affiliations include the Real Es-tate Board of New York, vice president and member of the executive commit-tee of the Board of Governors; Met-ropolitan Museum of Art, honorary trustee; American Friends of the Isra-el Museum, honorary chairman of the executive committee of the Board of Directors; Peggy Guggenheim Collec-tion in Venice, member of the adviso-ry board; Guild Hall of East Hampton, member of the Board of Trustees; Cen-tral Synagogue, member of the Board of Trustees; Jewish Association for Ser-vices for the Aged, chair of the execu-tive committee; Association for a Bet-ter New York, founder, director and vice president; UJA Federation of New York, member of the board of the real estate committee; Real Estate Institute of Ba-

ruch College, member of the Board of Trustees; New York State Council on

the Arts, member, 1976-1986, 1994-1999.

Mr. Lindenbaum earned a B.A. cum laude from Harvard College in 1956 and a J.D. cum

laude in 1959 from Harvard Law School. After graduating from law school, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship. He married Linda M. Lewis in 1957. They have two married daughters, Er-ica Tishman and Laurie Lindenbaum, and six grandchildren.

David R. GreenbaumPresident, Vornado Realty Trust,

New York divisionWinner of the Bernard H. Mendik Life-

time Leadership in Real Estate Award, which is named for Bernard H. Mendik, REBNY’s chairperson from 1992 until his death, in 2001.

David R. Greenbaum is president of Vornado Office, the New York office di-vision of Vornado Realty Trust, which owns a commercial real estate portfolio in New York City that encompasses 52 buildings totaling 22 million square feet. Mr. Greenbaum oversees all aspects of the New York City portfolio, including ground-up development, redevelop-ment, leasing and building operations.

He started his career as a tax attor-ney at Weil Gotshal & Manges, and then joined the Mendik Company, a private owner of commercial real estate, which merged into Vornado Realty Trust in 1997.

Mr. Greenbaum is a trustee and mem-ber of the executive committee of the Citizens Budget Commission, a private watchdog organization that monitors the city’s and state’s fiscal policies; a member of the executive committee of the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York; a member of the Realty Advi-sory Board; and a member of the Board of Directors for the 34th Street Partnership, the Grand Central Partnership and the Times Square Alliance, all public-private efforts to enhance midtown. He is also a

member of the New York University Real Estate Institute’s advisory board and the executive roundtable committee of the advisory board. Mr. Greenbaum also serves on the boards of the Jewish Na-tional Fund as a presidential adviser, the Jewish Guild for the Blind and the Jef-fery Modell Foundation. He was selected by the New York City Partnership to par-ticipate in the David Rockefeller Fellows Program.

Robert A. KnakalChairman, Founding Partner,

Massey Knakal Realty ServicesWinner of the Louis Smadbeck Bro-

ker Recognition Award, which honors the memory of one of the profession’s most esteemed practitioners.

Robert Knakal graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania with a bach-elor’s of science in economics in 1984. He majored in real estate finance and entrepreneurial management and was a member of the Wharton School’s Real Estate Club.

In 1981, Mr. Knakal was hired by Coldwell Banker Commercial, now CB Richard Ellis, as a market research in-tern. He returned the following sum-mer as co-leader of its summer market research group and, in 1983, obtained his real estate sales license. He worked that summer at Coldwell Banker as an assistant to a senior broker. After grad-uation, he started as a full-time invest-ment property specialist with CB’s mid-town office.

In 1984, Mr. Knakal collaborated with Paul Massey Jr. to establish a property sales group in Manhattan. They served as co-directors for the new specializa-tion, and, in 1986, shared CB’s presti-gious top salesman award in New York. (At that time, CB employed an average of 60 people in its Manhattan office.) Messrs. Knakal and Massey retained this top ranking until they left the firm in November 1988 to start their own business, Massey Knakal Realty Servic-es. To date, Mr. Knakal has been respon-

sible for the sale of more than 1,050 properties worth over $5.8 billion.

Mr. Knakal was in 1993 elected presi-dent of the National Realty Conference, which made him the youngest president in the organization’s 58-year history. He is also a very involved member of REB-NY. He has served on numerous com-mittees, including the ethics committee and the arbitration committee, and has been chairman of its sales brokers com-mittee. He was also on the Commer-cial Division’s Board of Directors, and was elected to the Board of Governors. In 2003, Mr. Knakal was appointed to REBNY’s executive committee.

Mr. Knakal won, along with broker Mark Massey, the prestigious Robert T. Lawrence Award in the REBNY Most Ingenious Deal of the Year contest for their nine-year assemblage of the east-erly blockfront of Second Avenue be-tween 54th and 55th streets.

In 2005, Mr. Knakal led the market-ing team for the $138.5 million sale of the Vanderveer Estates in Brooklyn, the largest privately owned apartment complex in the borough. The proper-ty consisted of 2,500 apartments in 59 elevator buildings. The sale price was $138,500,000. In 2006, Mr. Knakal led the marketing team in the assem-blage of the entire western blockfront on Sixth Avenue between 30th and 31st streets. This marked Massey Knakal’s largest development transaction to date, at a price of $117,500,000.

Ralph J. DiRuggieroVice President, Property Manage-

ment, Paramount Group,Winner of the George M. Brooker

Management Executive of the Year Award, which honors the memory of the late Mr. Brooker, the first vice president for REBNY’s Management Division and one of the profession’s most respected members.

Ralph DiRuggiero holds a bachelor’s of science from the University of Scran-ton and a master’s of public administra-tion from Baruch College. He also attend-

ed Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government program for senior execu-tives in state and local government.

Mr. DiRuggiero began his career as a budget analyst at the city’s Office of Man-agement and Budget. He then worked as the assistant budget director for Es-sex County, N.J., eventually rising to be-come the assistant county administrator for New Jersey’s largest urban county. In 1987, he joined Williams Real Estate Company as a district manager respon-sible for a midtown portfolio of office buildings, and shortly thereafter was promoted to assistant vice president.

Mr. DiRuggiero then joined Swig Weil-er & Arnow Management Company as its vice president of operations respon-sible for 6 million square feet of Class A offices in Manhattan. In 1989, he joined Equitable Real Estate Investment Man-agement as asset manager, and, for the next 10 years, was responsible for estab-lishing the New York regional office of Compass Management & Leasing, a sub-sidiary of Equitable. In 1994, he was pro-moted to senior vice president, respon-sible for Compass’ national corporate accounts, including AT&T, Lucent Tech-nologies, AMP Inc. and General Motors. Mr. DiRuggiero completed assignments in Mexico City and in the Netherlands for Lucent, and was a member of Com-pass’ management committee. As the firm merged with Jones Lang LaSalle, Mr. DiRuggiero was promoted to execu-tive vice president with responsibilities for corporate clients.

In 1999, Mr. DiRuggiero joined the Trammell Crow Company as senior vice president of property management and as its regional director for the Northeast, responsible for clients including HSBC Bank and American Express. Mr. DiRug-giero joined Paramount Group in 2001 as vice president of property management, and is responsible for all aspects of prop-erty management operations and secu-rity for the current portfolio of 12 million square feet, in New York, Washington and San Francisco. Mr. DiRuggiero es-tablished Paramount’s San Francisco presence and is responsible for leasing in that market.

Lindenbaum, Greenbaum, Knakal, DiRuggiero and Korren snag top honors

The 2010 Real Estate Board of New York Honorees

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OP-ED

observer.com | the commercial observer26 January 19, 2010

I was sincerely humbled to learn that I was going to be this year’s recipient of the Real Estate

Board of New York’s Louis Smad-beck Broker Recognition Award. I’m extraordinarily appreciative to REBNY, Steve Spinola, Bill Mon-tana and the commercial board of directors for this honor—and to everyone who has, even tangen-tially, been a part of this wonder-ful ride.

Probably the nicest thing about being notified that I would receive this award is that it made me take a step back and consider the whole history of my career. And when I did that, I imme-diately started thinking of all the people who’ve helped me along the way, without whom I would never have been consid-ered for this recognition.

My first serious expo-sure to the real estate in-dustry took place by acci-dent, during spring break of my freshman year at the Wharton School, in 1981, when I, along with just about every oth-er Wharton kid, wanted to be the next hot shot to take over Wall Street. I wanted a summer job that would look good on my résumé, so I applied at every commercial bank and investment bank I saw in Ber-gen County (which is where I grew up). I walked out of a Paine Web-ber office in Continental Plaza and, across the hall, I saw “Coldwell Banker.” I thought it was another bank, so I dropped my résumé off there, too.

Just a few hours later, I received a phone call asking me to come in for an interview the next day. There was no Web in 1981, so I went to the library prior to the interview to do some research on this bank so that I’d be prepared. When I discovered that Coldwell Banker was a real es-tate company, I almost didn’t go to the interview. But I went, and it was the only company to offer me summer employment, so I took the job somewhat reluctantly.

From my first day there, I loved it. It was an energetic environment with hardworking people making a lot of money and having a lot of fun. The result was three college summers working at CB. It was there that I developed friendships with two senior brokers who were willing to befriend a young, wide-

eyed kid. Jack Fatigati was always willing to answer any of the hun-dreds of questions I had, and Tom Mallaney taught me that, despite the commonly accepted rule, nice guys can finish first. I’m fortunate to count Jack and Tom among my good friends to this day, nearly 30 years later.

After graduating from Whar-ton, I decided to take a full-time position with CB in their

Manhattan office. On my first day on the job, I met this other young guy named Paul Massey. He had

worked for CB in the same summer program, in Boston, and he’d also decided to give the build-ing sales business a go in the Big Apple. CB had about 50 office leasing brokers in New York at the time, and four build-ing sales brokers, includ-ing Paul. The three other sales brokers each had about 20 years of expe-rience and wanted noth-ing to do with the young kids—so, on my second

day on the job, Paul and I formed a partnership that has lasted for 26 years and counting. Thousands of days and tens of thousands of conversations later, I can say that I have been so lucky to have a great business partner who has driven me to do better than my best every day. Thank you, Paul.

The CB years were so much fun. There was a group of us who all started together and went through the “start-up phase” of what was a very challenging but exciting busi-ness. Johnny Maher, Kevin Danehy, Paul Myers, Bob Stella, Bob Law, Kim Mogul, Jackie Mansfield and many others were all there with Paul and me, and we all fought to make our mark on the industry. Dinners often consisted of one pur-chased beer and the systematic dis-mantling of the free hors d’oeuvres bar at the Charley O’s in the ground floor of 437 Madison Avenue.

Paul and I closed our first transaction in March of 1985, a 20,000-square-foot commercial building located at 1421 Third Av-enue that almost burned down the night before the closing. But the building survived; the sale closed; and when we got back to the office, our mentor, Gerry Bridges, was happy to take “the rookies” to a

grand dinner at Smith & Wollensky. Gerry was a 50-year veteran of CB who could not have been nicer to us. Unfortunately, he passed away last year, but Paul and I will always remember his kindness to us in our formative years. In two weeks, our firm will present the 21st annual Gerald W. Bridges Salesman of the Year Award to our top agent.

In the early days of prospecting, I was fortunate to stumble upon Louis Brause, who owned two prop-erties in the territory I was cover-ing. In my first cold call to him, I ex-plained that I wanted to meet with him to discuss what Paul and I were up to in our new division at Cold-well. Lou suggested a meeting at his office at 52 Vanderbilt Avenue. I said, “Vanderbilt Avenue? Where’s that?” I can just imagine what kind of second thoughts that response must have given him. Fortunately for Paul and me, Lou kept the meet-ing and became a great friend to us.

Another of our company awards is named in his honor, recognizing all of the guidance he provided.

As our careers progressed, Paul and I became aware of the Real Es-tate Board of New York and the tre-mendous work it does on behalf of our industry. In the mid-1980s, we both set the goal of becoming members of REBNY’s Sales Brokers Committee—and after months of harassing Jack Hill, who oversaw the committee in those days, we finally did. It was on that commit-tee that we made several of the relationships that we still cherish to this day. The comradely nature of the sales brokerage business in New York would surprise many people. Among our competitors, we’ve met a lot of people whom

we regard very highly and consid-er our good friends. In addition to many others, these include Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan at CB Richard Ellis; Ron Cohen, Richard Baxter, Scott Latham and Jon Ca-plan at Cushman & Wakefield; Pe-ter Hauspurg and Brian Ezratty at Eastern Consolidated; and Woody Heller at Studley. They are all the finest of professionals and among the nicest people you could meet.

Other brokers have helped me in many ways. Mary Ann Tighe has been an inspirational leader in our industry and I congratulate her on becoming the first woman to chair REBNY. Steve Siegel is my real es-tate big brother who has always been there with the right advice at just the right time, and I could never forget one of the first bro-kers I co-brokered a sale with, Sid-ney Rosenthal, who taught me a lot about what being a sales broker was all about.

I’m especially honored and flat-tered when I note that this award puts me in the company of so many legendary brokers whom I respect and admire, including Steve Sie-gel, Ray O’Keefe, Dan Gronich, Stephen Riker, Ben Fox, Mary Ann Tighe, Eugene Hegy, Bruce Mos-ler, Earl Atlman and my partner, Paul Massey, who was the recipi-ent three years ago. This recog-nition is particularly meaningful to me as Lou Smadbeck was one of those early members of the Sales Brokers Committee whom I learned so much from. He was gra-cious enough to send Paul and me a kind letter in November of 1988, congratulating us on the opening of our firm. That letter, and a photo of Lou, hangs in the reception area of our Manhattan office.

I can also think of so many clients to whom I owe so much. I apol-ogize to each of you for not be-

ing able to mention you all here by name. I must, however, acknowl-edge a few. I’ll be forever grateful to Harry Macklowe for allowing me to represent him in several transac-tions, including the sale of his mul-tifamily portfolio, one of the most rewarding transactions I’ve ever worked on. Before Ofer Yardeni be-came the maverick investor that he is today, he was a sales broker, and we completed the sale of a prop-erty on West 28th Street together in the early 1990s. I’m honored to count him as one of my clients to-

day, having sold many properties for him over the years.

Gary Barnett and Dov Hertz con-tinue to impress me with their in-sightful knowledge and straight-forward approach. Seventeen years of transactions later, I remain ap-preciative of what they’ve done for me. Frank Patafio, Russ Appel and Joel Wiener continue to show con-fidence in me year after year, and I’m very grateful. Joe Sitt has been consistently great to work with, and Andy Davidoff has not only been a wonderful client but has be-come a valued friend.

But no matter how small the transaction, without the confi-dence and trust of each client, a track record cannot grow. There-fore, I’m extraordinarily thankful to each and every client with whom I’ve ever worked.

The many past and present members of my Massey Knakal family have had a huge hand in that track record—from all of my partners, including John Ciraulo, Tom Donovan, James Nelson, Shi-mon Shkury, Christy Moyle, and Mike Wlody; to our management team, including Gia LaMarca, Kyle Mast and Ken Krasnow; to each broker; to our part-time interns. My personal team members, Jon Hageman, Elysa Berlin, Tom Wil-loughby, Kevin Gleason and Greg Postyn, and my personal assistant, Erin Mitchell, are second to none in terms of supporting my efforts. Past team members include Danny Hagan, Mike Desjadon, Mike So-leimani, David Kalish, Casey Mc-Cormack, J.J. Stanton, Meyrick Ferguson, Michael Decheser, Peter DeCheser and James Nelson, who is not only a partner but is a top producer at the firm.

All I can say is thank you to all of you, mentioned here or not, who have participated in transac-tions with me. This is a business in which success cannot be attained without significant help. I’ve been very lucky to have had so many wonderful people to enjoy this in-credible job with, and also lucky to have accidentally found a vocation I love so much.

rknakal@masseyknakal.com

Robert Knakal is the chairman and founding partner of Massey Knakal Realty Services, and has brokered the sale of more than 1,050 proper-ties in his career.

This REBNY honoree has many to thank for success in his accidental vocation

A Thank-You Note

There was no Web in 1981, so I went to the library prior to the interview to do some research on this bank so that I’d be prepared. When I discovered that Coldwell Banker was a real estate company, I almost didn’t go to the interview.

CONCRETE THOUGHTS

Robert KnakalColumnist

REBNY AWARDS SPECIAL

observer.com | the commercial observer28 January 19, 2010

By Jotham SederStrom

The Commercial Observer: Congratulations on becoming chairwoman for the Real Estate Board of New York. What will be your first order of business as chairwoman?

Ms. Tighe: Last week, I met with the executive committee of REB-NY. In the last quarter of 2009, I joked that I went on a listening tour, where I met with as many members as I could of the board of governors and the executive committee and as many of the past chairmen as were able to find time to meet. [REBNY president] Steve Spinola, his staff and myself put together priorities for REBNY to focus on in 2010. We talked to the executive committee and got their sign-off on those pri-orities, and we’ve begun to organize ourselves around those priorities.

And what are those priorities? We put together a collection of

priorities that really are aimed not only at real estate but also at things we believe are critical for the well-being of the city. The first priority is to advocate for programs that in-centivize job creation and reten-tion in New York City, and we’re ac-tually making a specific proposal, which our economic development committee has put together for the [Economic Development Corpora-tion], for tax credits related to peo-ple who are bringing new employees to the city. The second priority is to advocate for fiscal discipline at the city and state level. The third prior-ity is to work with all relevant par-ties to encourage the development of affordable housing. The fourth is to advocate for a better and stronger Buildings Department.

We think they’ve done a great job on dealing with security at construc-tion sites, but, meanwhile, there are a number of hurdles that need to be overcome in terms of making the management side of the operation flow better so we can be ready for the next construction cycle. Also, we’re concerned because the unem-ployment rate among the construc-tion trades is 25 percent in the city right now, and there are over 500 projects that are stopped; so we want to work, in general, with the city to try to deal with unemploy-ment in the trades as well as some of the jobs that are troubled.

Another priority is that we want to seek more federal infrastructure dollars because New York City has not gotten its fair share.

We want to support immigration reform, and, finally, we want to en-courage everyone to participate in the 2010 census.

Looking inward, do you have a cohesive vision for REBNY?

REBNY’s structure is a strong and very healthy structure. I think if there was any area of focus, it’s that we want to continue to expand the membership. We’re 12,000 strong now, but we want to bring in more young members.

You mentioned the Buildings Department. With REBNY being such a powerful lobby, I’d love to hear your opinion of Mayor Bloomberg.

There’s no official REBNY stance on the mayor, except to say that the city has flourished under his lead-ership and that in this very difficult economic time for the city, we all feel blessed that such a skilled business-man and manager is at the helm. So I think we can only feel very positive that he’s leading us these next four years.

Take off your REBNY hat. What’s your personal opinion about Bloomberg?

I personally believe everything I just said. This is a case where there’s just a period of stress on a lot of the different systems in the city, and it is

a very happy thing to wake up in the morning and know crime is down in New York. It’s a wonderful thing to realize that there are fewer deaths in the Fire Department. And it’s won-derful to know he’s continuing to fight the good fight for the schools of the city, and our role at REBNY is to make sure the physical environment keeps up with his grand vision.

You’re the first woman to be elected chairman in REBNY’s 113-year history. Is that shock-ing to you? Is it a significant benchmark in your mind?

It means a great deal to me, but I can’t say that I’m shocked, because our industry has tended to be slow to change. I think that’s probably the best way to describe it. I think it’s only within the last 20 years or so that you’re beginning to see the fe-male membership of the Real Estate Board growing significantly. I don’t mean that historically there haven’t been important women in New York real estate—because there are many of them—but they have been iso-lated cases. The good news now is, there have been a number of women in our industry who would qualify to be chairman of the Real Estate Board, and what’s nice is that the executive committee and our president, Steve Spinola, has decided it was time to recognize somebody. But, believe me, there are several others who could just as well be in my role.

You’ve been hailed as one of the most influential women in New York City by the New York Post. Do you agree with that state-ment?

If it means having the ability to get things done—that you can envision something and get it done—than I’d like to think yes, that that’s the case. There are a few things I’ve managed to get done that make me feel like I can have some impact on our city.

Can you name one of them?I think you can look at two tow-

ers that are standing that I don’t think anybody would’ve bet on. The Condé Nast at Four Times Square, which was the first new construc-tion in a decade and the first build-ing at Times Square. As you probably know, it was a project that was held up for more than two decades. And then, of course, there was the New York Times building at a site that

I don’t think most people thought was coming into development any-time soon.

You were honored with a ‘Life-time Achievement’ award by REBNY at its award ceremony. That must be a little weird, right?

You know, I suddenly thought to myself, ‘Oh my! Am I that old?’ On the other hand, that night was so fun. I always joke that 25 years ago, I was so intimidated by the event, and now it seems like I’m going to a family wedding. I mean, it has that kind of festive feeling for me, so the award just added to that.

In a previous life, you worked at ABC, where you helped to create the A&E network. What do you think of A&E these days? Are you watching it?

I love A&E. One of the things that gave me great pride … I can still en-vision the moment, on a yellow le-gal pad, I wrote down ‘Arts & Enter-tainment’ and then crossed out the letters, and it’s hard to believe that myself and a dear friend, Liz Oliver, could be sitting at the garage she rented in East Hampton in 1981, and then, lo and behold, all these years later A&E is part of the viewing land-scape.

Have you watched The Jack-sons: A Family Dynasty yet?

[laughs] I haven’t. I have to ad-mit. Though I must admit I’m on the channel all the time, but I haven’t

gotten to that. [laughs] I’m sure I would enjoy it, though.

Let’s shift from the Jacksons and go back to real estate. What’s your outlook for 2010?

I think we’re already in the pro-cess of seeing an uptick. In the leas-ing market in Manhattan, we’re seeing an increase in activity. The five-year rolling average in midtown leasing, just to give one statistic, is 1.2 million square feet per month. We were under that number until June, when we broke through the million-square-foot mark. With the exception of one month, we’ve been up every month. In December, we did 1.6 million square feet of leas-ing in midtown. Every single market all had their availability rate drop—not hugely, but at least 10 or 20 ba-sis points for each one. In addition, I think most of them had positive ab-sorption, if not all of them.

What’s happened is very simple: We now have enough volume to es-tablish where pricing is. Once you’ve established pricing, people feel con-fident they can transact.

jsederstrom@observer.com

CB Richard Ellis’ Mary Ann Tighe on REBNY 2010, recent leases and Mayor Bloomberg

madame Chair

‘[W]e’re concerned because the unemployment rate among the construction trades is 25 percent in the city right now and there are over 500 projects that are stopped; so we want to work, in general, with the city to try to deal with unemploy-ment in the trades as well as some of the jobs that are troubled.’

earlier this month, legendary CB rich-ard ellis tristate chief executive mary ann tighe officially moved into her new role as chairwoman of the power-ful real estate Board of New york. the Commercial observer spoke to ms. tighe last week about her place in real estate history, the city’s revitalization and her priorities for reBNy.

the Sit-dowNREBNY AWARDS SPECIAL

observer.com | the commercial observer30 January 19, 2010

power broker: todd korrenREBNY AWARDS SPECIAL

by Jotham SederStrom

at one time or another during his 25-year career, Todd Ko-rren has donned nearly ev-

ery hat that can be worn in the real estate industry. But whether he’s served as a leasing agent, property manager, developer or acquisitions pro, one puzzle the Swig Equities se-nior vice president has yet to solve is the one he is reminded of each time he returns to his William Street of-fice: How do you keep Lower Man-hattan desirable for potential ten-ants?

Indeed, as a member of the Real Estate Board of New York’s Down-town Rental Conditions Committee

and of a subcommittee focused on drawing new tenants to Lower Man-hattan, Mr. Korren has emerged as one of the area’s most committed advocates.

“We’re trying to figure out how to make downtown more competitive,” said Mr. Korren during an interview at his office at 110 William, one of the downtown properties Swig op-erates. “The question is, how do we lure tenants downtown, and how do we improve retail conditions and en-courage them to come down here?”

Mr. Korren is nothing if not pas-sionate about Lower Manhattan, where the Roslyn, N.Y., resident first got his start in the real estate indus-try. As a college student at New York University, Mr. Korren worked for Rockrose Development, a job that allowed the young upstart to play a

role in luring people to Battery Park City in the late 1980s, back when the area was in its earliest development phase and not yet the vibrant com-munity it is today.

“Back then, there was literally one building, for all intents and pur-poses,” recalled Mr. Korren. As for how difficult it was to lure tenants and residents to the area, Mr. Kor-ren said it was no walk in the park. “Especially in the winter, when it was very cold and there weren’t a lot of attractions. That was before the movie theater was there and before you had other buildings. Taxicabs weren’t even coming over there yet. It was very inconvenient.”

Since then, Mr. Korren has em-barked on a career that offers a pan-oramic view of the real estate indus-try. From positions at construction management company Structure Tone to the mechanical and elec-trical contractor EMCOR Group, he has learned the business by work-ing from the ground up and has of-ten followed a project from concept to completion.

“I’ve always felt that the best way to sell a product is by really under-standing the product and to sell it from a position of confidence,” said Mr. Korren, 45, who has been mar-ried for 20 years to his wife, Donna, and has two young daughters. “The best way to sell from a position of confidence is having knowledge. I’m very interested in learning, and I’ve always been somebody who’s con-tinued to learn during my career.”

In total, he has negotiated more than 830 leases represent-ing over 5 million square feet

of property during stints at such companies as the Witkoff Group and Rockrose Development, where he returned as a managing direc-tor in 2001. He also played a role in more than 20 acquisitions, with a combined value in excess of $1.2 billion, he said.

Last year, Mr. Korren and Swig Equities—where he has operated since 2004—completed capital-im-provement projects at all seven of the company’s Lower Manhattan properties, including lobby and fa-cade renovations at buildings such as 110 Williams Street and 90 Broad Street.

The capital-improvement proj-ects were made easier thanks to a de-cision by Kent Swig in 2007 to take a break from acquiring new projects

and instead to move to refinance Swig’s existing assets—a strategy that turned out to be prescient, said Mr. Korren.

“This was before you had the sub-prime crises,” Mr. Korren recalled. “Kent realized we needed to stop and get the properties leased up and sta-bilized so we could refinance them, and we did have a concern that there was going to be some sort of credit-induced crises that would affect our ability to refinance our properties over the next 24 months.”

But what Mr. Korren appears to be most passionate about these days is his work in Lower Manhattan and his efforts to draw new tenants to

the area. Although many questions about construction at the World Trade Center have yet to be an-swered, Mr. Korren said that delays have not kept people from flocking to other areas of Lower Manhattan below Canal Street.

“What’s an interesting fact—and something I like to tell people—is that downtown Manhattan, exclud-ing Tribeca, has the fastest-growing residential population within all five boroughs,” he said. “The fastest-growing residential population! It’s literally doubling since 2000. And that’s absolutely amazing.”

Mr. Korren said that he expects to announce what may be the larg-

est transaction of the year within several weeks, when an undisclosed tenant signs a 120,000-foot lease at 110 William. But Mr. Korren, who is bullish on Lower Manhattan, sug-gested that the deal could be the first of many for Swig and its portfolio of downtown properties this year.

“Where the uncertainty still re-mains is the access to the subways, whether it be the Calatrava station or when the PATH station will be fin-ished,” he said. “Those are really the questions people would like to have answered. But as those dates start to get firmly finalized, you’ll see people start to move back down here.”

jsederstrom@observer.com

REBNY honoree and Swig ace focuses on luring tenants to Lower Manhattan

the downtowner

Mr. Korren said that he ex-pects to announce what may be the largest transaction of the year within several weeks, when an undisclosed tenant signs a 120,000-foot lease at 110 William. But Mr. Korren, who is bullish on Lower Manhattan, suggest-ed that the deal could be the first of many for Swig and its portfolio of downtown properties this year.

todd korren joined Swig equities in 2004, after stints with the witkoff Group and rockrose development, among others.

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