News
2-5 For MIT Real Estate Center
October 5, 2010
| Over the weekend, the MIT Center for Real Estate hit the quarter century mark with a dinner party, cocktail reception, gala, this year?s graduation ceremony, and oh, yes, a conference featuring industry heavyweights and MIT CRE students and alum. |
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| At the Friday reception in the new Media Lab addition, we snapped The Newbury Line?s Mike Jammen and Vin Norton flanking the Center's chairman and director Brian ?Tony? Ciochetti. Tony told us that the conference panels—including sessions on finance, industry challenges, and opportunities—featured guests like Nobel laureate Robert Merton. Other celebs appearing included Apollo Global management?s Joe Azrack, NAREIT's Brad Case, TIAA-CREF?s Tom Garbutt, JP Morgan Asset Management's former managing director Michael Gilberto, and Boston Properties' Doug Linde. Center grads Mike and Vin have created a high profile with their $450M fund with JV partner Taurus Investment Holdings to buy retail properties on Newbury Street. |
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| STEP/MVTF?s Wig Zamore and GLC Development Resources?Gary Stoloff were members of the first RE Center class to graduate the one-year master?s program way back when. They said they were very lucky to be on the maiden voyage because leaders of ?all the big real estate companies wanted to be part of it.? They rubbed calculators with the likes of Gerry Hines, Ernie Hahn, and Hank Spaulding. Wig says during the program he learned to be a developer and then transitioned into being a community activist promoting dense, transit oriented projects. Gary is building multifamily rentals including Washington Mills in Lawrence, a former textile mill redeveloped into 155 loft apartments completed last year. |
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| We snapped Colliers Meredith & Grew's Kristin Blount, now the president of the 8,000-member national CREW Network, with Northland Residential Corp.?s Peter Crabtree and New Atlantic Development/MIT lecturer Peter Roth. Kristin, a broker, says she thinks the ?bleeding has stopped and people are transacting again.? She's working on requirements for BCBS, Ropes & Gray, and NPR. Peter Crabtree is—and this is not a typo—building condo projects (mostly upscale) in Belmont, Hingham, Burlington, and Bourne. He says sales are much better this year than last. The big hurdle still is people trying to sell one home so they can buy another. |
