News
STOLER: WORLD NOT ENDING
September 10, 2009
 |
| Earlier, we dropped by the Williams Club for the National Realty Club’s bi-weekly luncheon, keynoted by media maven Michael Stoler (right, with NRC prez Tom Graf of NorthMarq), who led an animated discussion on the real state of the market, from distressed assets to financing, and the dead hotel market to discount-heavy office. Is the world ending? No, he says, but things are not getting better just yet. Securitized lending will come back, Midtown office should bottom next year, and banks will face reality come 4Q. |
 |
| Bornagan Properties’ Max Krivitski, Buchbinder & Warren Realty Group’s Gabe Whitman, and Benchmark Research’s Christine Gagliardi. It’s good to be in title insurance research these days—Chris says it's remained strong. If you’re looking for new eats in Chelsea, Gabe just signed a 1.6k-SF Italian restaurant to 184 Eighth Ave., while Max has been busy researching distressed property. Bankers aren’t yet willing to sell at 40-50 cents on the dollar, which you’ll need for a 9% cap rate on a rental conversion, he says, but he’ll make sure to let everyone know when they do—after snapping up properties himself, of course. |
 |
| Spectrum Realty Advisors’ Steve Waldman, Benchmark Title’s Susan Lampert, and GKV Architects’ Jutta Ishii. Congrats to Steve, just elected to the board of a REIT (but we’ll have to sit tight to find out which one). And Jutta looks positively at ease, despite yesterday being her daughter’s first day of pre-school—usually parents are more worried than the kids, she says. |
