A couple of quotes from the Commercial Observer, 2/3/21, Virtual CO/REBNY Celebration Strikes Cautiously Optimistic Tone for 2021, citing bigwigs from the Real Estate Board of New York event.
“What has happened with urban office employment is not a cyclical change, it’s secular,” said Tommy Craig, senior vice president of Hines. “It’s too early to understand the long-term world of a post-Zoom world. Not only have we lost 500,000 jobs, but the fundamental relationship between work and place is being reassessed.”While that's especially relevant to Manhattan office space, the market for expensive, relatively cramped residential space in Brooklyn diminishes if more people work from home, though others cited New York City's culture--assuming it revives--as an enduring anchor.
Optimistic was former Forest City Ratner/Forest City New York CEO MaryAnne Gilmartin, who founded MAG Partners and serves as interim CEO of publicly traded Mack-Cali Realty Corp.:
“There’s a possibility we’re in a moment now where, if you can seize the moment and you can extract the value proposition, and the concessions or the distress, the minute the world comes bouncing back — and I do feel like we might have a Roaring 20s moment at the end of the year — when everyone feels super-bullish about cities, I want to be there and I’m preparing for that,” she said. “Of course, there has to be enough of a discount to feel that the risk is worth taking.”
Translation: there are going to be some huge real-estate bargains as overleveraged investors/developers and/or those constrained by quarterly metrics, look to get out. Her company is privately held, and presumably raising--or aiming to raise--the resources to pick up that discount.
One question for watchers of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park: how much of that discount will be in Brooklyn?
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