Mid Atlantic Real Estate Journal — New Jersey — May 11 - 24, 2012 — 33A
www.marejournal.com
Industrial Commercial Real Estate Women of New Jersey www.icrew.org Industrial Commercial Real Estate Women, Inc. w .icrewnj.org
ICREW to offer membership
2012 BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Cheryl Hardt cheryl.hardt@cbre.com PRESIDENT ELECT AND CREW NETWORK delegate Patricia A. Riedel patricia.riedel@cbre.com
ewark, NJ — The year 2011 was a “wa- tershed” in the evolu- At ICREW NJ April Luncheon Meeting Newark’s comeback is “Very Real,” say panelists N
tion of Newark, NJ’s largest city. With $700 million worth of development underway and another $1 billion in the pipe- line, Newark’s comeback is very real, Lyneir Richardson, CEO of Brick City Develop- ment Corp. (BCDC) told at- tendees of the April luncheon meeting of ICREWNJ, held at the Newark Club. The program’s title was “The Branding of Newark as a Des- tination for Business,” and the panel discussion was “a differ- ent kind of presentation than we’re used to,” said Monica Ceres of Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla, ICREW NJ’s direc- tor of programming. The four panelists focused on the effort behind Newark’s comeback as a business destination and how the message is being de- livered to the world business community. BCDC is the City of New- ark’s economic development corporation, with a specific focus on “getting deals done,” said Richardson. “We term our mission as ‘pipeline to finish line’.” And one key to the city’s revival, according to Richard- son, is that recent and ongoing economic development is not just about filling office build- ings, but also about lifestyle amenities. That includes everything from new grocery stores to ho- tel development—“the under- construction Marriott is the first new hotel in Newark in 38 years,” he said, noting that a second new hotel is now under construction as well. Also part of the growing amenity mix are new restaurants surrounding the Prudential Center Arena, and the much-heralded Teach- ers Village, which will in- clude academic programs and residences and services for the city’s teachers. On the corporate front, Pan- asonic’s announcement of the relocation of its North Ameri- can headquarters to Newark has made major headlines, of course, “and we plan to build on that momentum,” Richard- son said. “We have in place a multi-year plan to market sites
TREASURER Sefi Silverstein ssilverstein@wgcpas.com RECORDING SECRETARY Rachel M. Brindisi rbrindisi@naiglobal.com DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP Mary Lynn Kearns mkearns@dancker.com CO-DIRECTOR, PROGRAMING
Shown from right: Lyneir Richardson (Brick City Development Cor- poration), Catherine Timko (The Riddle Company) and Tom Sullivan (Princeton Partners).
for development, from ground- breaking to lease-signing. Our time is now, and my job is to make the phone ring.” But until recently, “Newark wasn’t on the radar screen,” said Catherine Timko, princi- pal of The Riddle Company, cit- ing the results of a communica- tion audit. The audit results launched a marketing effort that began with BCDC’s grow- ing name recognition, focusing on Lyneir Richardson’s public- and private-sector track record and “building credibility”. “How do you convince com- mercial real estate profession- als about Newark?” Timko asked. “You focus on its loca- tional advantages and, ulti- mately, Panasonic changed the dialogue. We’re now shifting the message—we’re on the mountaintop.” Among the city’s key assets, noted Tom Sullivan, CEO of Princeton Partners, are 40,000 college students in the one square mile of Newark’s Uni- versity Heights section, “the densest student population of anywhere in the country.” The academic names are well- known—Rutgers, Seton Hall, NJIT and UMDNJ—but the student population “is not yet integrated into the city—ac- complishing that is key.” Other interesting facts in- troduced by Sullivan are that Newark “is the second fast- est-growing city on the East Coast. It is one of the top four cities in North America for industry, and number one for
adding value, according to a Minnesota think-tank. With its student population it is an innovation city, it is one of the more walkable and sustainable cities, and we are now seeing residential development.” “We are going to get the mes- sage out,” Sullivan said, spe- cifically noting the launch of a new web site that will “provide an enabling voice for residents so that stories of Newark can be told from the inside out.” “This is also a team effort to communicate Newark’s mes- sage with commercial real estate brokers,” said Madelyne Kirch, president of Sun & Moon Marketing Communica- tions. That includes not just NJ brokers, but also those in New York. “The message is that Newark is an alternative to Manhattan.” “We polled senior brokers in New York and found that this information just wasn’t cross- ing the Hudson—there was a lack of familiarity about what is going on here. We are very excited about the branding of Newark,” she concluded. “The campaign is ongoing that Newark is a destination for business.” The April philanthropy was in support of the AIDS Foun- dation for Children, which “has served New Jersey’s HIV/ AIDS-affected families for more than 25 years,” noted Cheryl Hardt of CBRE, presi- dent of ICREW NJ. “We are very pleased to give our sup- port to this worthy cause.” n
Monica Ceres, Esq. mceres@ghclaw.com CO-DIRECTOR, PROGRAMING Susan Karp skarp@coleschotz.com CO-DIRECTOR, SPONSORSHIP Patricia D. Faulkner pfaulkner@naiglobal.com CO-DIRECTOR, SPONSORSHIP Diane Menard diane2@prestigetitle.net DIRECTOR,SPECIAL PROJECTS/GOLF Robin S. Grossman rgros30687@aol.com DIRECTOR, SPECIAL PROJECTS/PR Rebecca Machinga, CPA rmachinga@withum.com ADVISOR & CREW NETWORK DELEGATE Sheila Spriggs Nall snall@kssarchitects.com ADVISOR Silvana Finizio sfinizio@carouselindustries.com
ADVISOR & BYLAWS Annette Murray, CPA amurray@wgcpas.com
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