Forest City's Canela saluted by CO for rebuilding modular work force (and where's report on B2 cost increase?)

Among The New Players of Commercial Real Estate and CRE Finance--25 lenders and debt brokers under 35 in the region, and 30 leasing, sales, development and investment professionals under 30 years in the city--is Elizabeth Canela, 27, Senior Project Manager of External Affairs Division at Forest City Ratner Companies.

She doesn't address the public at meetings, but she's around, part of the team led by External Affairs Senior VP Ashley Cotton.

The profile notes that Canela, who began at Forest City some two years ago as an intern, interviewed 30 people a week to re-staff the modular factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard after Forest City's split with Skanska.

Some 80% of the workers are minorities, and 11% female, and Canela, who grew up in the Ingersoll Houses, is tracking NYCHA residents. "Creating access and opportunities in real ways is important,” she said.

Canela's achievement is worth noting. 

(As is the comparison--we don't know--between the number of construction workers promised and currently slated.)

At the same time, the Commercial Observer and other real estate news outlets might also report that Forest City underestimated the time it would take to reopen the factory, leading to a $30 million increase in estimated costs for the B2 modular tower. In other words, Canela and colleagues were playing catch-up.