Blackstone's Big Night
The real estate players came out to play last night at several simultaneous events—such as Transwestern's huge TrendLines conference, which we'll be covering over the next few days; a cool green building demo from Perkins + Will; and a Natwar Ghandi speech at DCBIA. But also last night, Blackstone founder Pete Peterson came to the Economic Club of Washington only hours after Equity Office shareholders accepted its offer for a $39 billion buyout, and here follow snapshots from our camera as we table-hopped at the Four Seasons.
Economic Club President Vernon Jordan, left, revealed that WETApresident Sharon Rockefeller had babysat Pete Peterson's 5 kids for all of $2 an hour when she was 13 years old, but said that after the Equity Office buyout, she had come to collect "her share." Peterson demurred in answer to a question whether the red-hot commercial real estate market is sustainable, saying strategy is being devised by co-founder Steve Schwartzman and real estate head Jon Gray. But, he added, "If anyone wants to buy a building, please let me know." (By the way, Jordan welcomed members in his speech by saying, "My name is Vernon Jordan, and I am a mainstream black man, who is articulate, bright, good looking, and clean.")
Practicing their dance revue at the Blackstone dinner were J Streetfounder Bruce Baschuk, GVA Advantis CEO emeritus Petch Gibbons, and Perseus Realty chairman Bob Cohen. Actually, they'd never heard of Blackstone and were looking for the Barnes, Morris, Pardoe & Foster table.
Testing seat designs for Nationals Stadium before Peterson spoke wereClark Construction CFO Dale Rosenthal, Lerner Enterprisesprincipal Bob Tanenbaum, and former Councilwoman Charlene Drew Jarvis.
Single-handedly trying to bring two corporate cultures together is Chevy Chase Bank chairman Frank Saul, center, standing between CB's Ernie Jarvis and former Trammell Crower Art Santry.
These CB/Trammell folks are everywhere now, aren't they? Here, top CB brokers Scott Frankel and Roberta Liss help psyche up Rand Construction founder Linda Rabbitt to give away a daughter in marriage this April. Linda is much too young to be a mother-in-law, so we're sure we got this wrong. But wish her good luck anyway!
