The Biggest Night of the Year!

2,300 people crowded the New York Hilton on Thursday night for REBNY's 118th annual banquet. We snapped 28 of its biggest stars. (Mayor de Blasio didn't event make our cut. Call it rookie hazing.)

CBRE tri-state CEO Mary Ann Tighe (whom we snapped with Cresa managing partner Marcus Rayner) tells us she enjoyed chatting with NYC Councilman Dan Garodnick about reviving the Midtown East rezoning push and getting to know Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, “who is smart and fun to chat with and full of good ideas.” SL Green chairman Steve Green paid tribute to his wife, Nancy Peck, during his acceptance speech for REBNY’s Bernard H. Mendik Lifetime Leadership award, and Mary Ann, who worked with them when they were still just business partners, learned that their romance began 27 years ago at the REBNY banquet. Mary Ann also tells us she’s working on seven HQs assignments and repping a few reinvented buildings and new-construction projects.

We also snapped Larry Silverstein—two days after he peeled back his own duties to chairman and named Marty Burger CEO of Silverstein Properties (Marty and Larry had been co-CEOs). Silverstein has developed, owned, and managed more than 35M SF since Larry founded it in 1957, and it has $10B worth of properties underway.

Fried Frank real estate chair Jonathan Mechanic (second from left, whom we snapped with US Congressman Michael Grimm, Tishman Speyer co-CEO Rob Speyer—also REBNY chairman—and The Durst Org’s Alexander Durst) spent Sunday watching football so he’d know who he’d be seeing in person at MetLife Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday (which, we assume, means he'll spend Monday through Saturday shopping for the best long underwear).

Here’s NYC Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, REBNY president Steve Spinola, Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital’s Alan Wiener, World Trade Center Properties prez Janno Lieber of Silverstein, and Lee & Associates NYC president Jim Wacht. Janno's been busy: 4 WTC opened in November, and in December, GroupM signed a 20-year lease for more than 500k SF in the to-be-built 3 WTC.

Eastern Consolidated’s Deborah Gutoff and president Daun Paris were celebrating their company’s launch of a retail leasing division (both tenant and landlord rep). The team already has done leases for Meatpacking's 1OAK at 453 W 17th St, Goldbar at 389 Broome St, and Markt at 676 Sixth Ave in Chelsea. On Friday, Daun and Eastern Consolidated CEO Peter Hauspurg headed to the Rosewood Mayakoba in Mexico’s Mayan Riviera to meet up with their son, his fiancé, and her parents. The purpose: location scouting for the couple’s wedding. The young'uns had been best friends at Duke and started dating just before graduation five years ago.

NGKF’s Neil Goldmacher (right, snapped with Colliers Tri-State president Michael Cohen, C&W's Josh Kuriloff, and Citibank North America region head Leslie Heifetz) says 2013 turned in strong leasing velocity, though that didn't dramatically improve fundamentals, thanks to tenants learning to use space more efficiently. He closed out the year with 225k SF for Hughes Hubbard at 1 Battery Park Plaza, 140k SF for Hachette Book Group at 1290 Ave of the Americas, and the 500k SF sale-leaseback of NYMEX to Brookfield. Michael says Hudson Yards will continue to absorb Midtown tenants, while increased construction outside Midtown’s core will lead to more supply within the core, keeping rent in check. Josh tells us to expect several big announcements about large office leases on the West side. Marketwide, leasing to tech users may outpace financial services deals, he says, and Downtown in particular will attract fashion and tech tenants. (We eagerly await the osmosis that leads to supermodels wearing tablets.)

Colliers East region president Joe Harbert (with L&L Holding Co president Robert Lapidus) sees no dark clouds on the horizon, though he’d like to see job growth accelerate. Still, he expects at least another several good years, including the continuation of rising prices. Robert is pumped about the strong leasing start at his repositioned 114 Fifth Ave, where Mashable has reportedly signed for its new HQ.

We also snapped Rudin Management president Eric Rudin, Robert Steinman, and Stroock partner Ross Moskowitz, who is optimistic about 2014 given the amount of capital available and the variety of sources.

Forest City Ratner’s Ali Esmaeilzadeh, who oversees the company’s office leasing; Melissa Burch, who’s presiding over the modular development of Atlantic Yards’ first residential building; and C&W global brokerage chair Bruce Mosler, who’s hunting for an anchor tenant for Brookfield’s Manhattan West.