REFA fall programs highlight busy season - by Al Mirin

Al Mirin, Cushman & Wakefield

The Fairfield/Westchester and Hartford Chapters have been busy with sold out events in October and early November. 

• October 14^th: David Waldman and Dan Zelson led a “Hard Hat” tour of Bedford Square in Westport

• October 25^th: close to 200 people attended a Residential Real Estate – Market Update program.  Panelist included Jeffrey Dunne, vice chairman, CBRE; Amy Kane, senior vice president - Westchester,  Lower Fairfield at William Raveis Real Estate and Gregory Belew, managing director, Alliance Residential Co.  Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel moderated the program.

• November 7^th: REFA was honored to have Tony Malkin, chairman and CEO of Empire State Realty Trust as the Fairfield/Westchester chapter’s speaker. Empire State Realty Trust is the public company created from Malkin Properties.  Malkin discussed the comparison of a public company versus a private company.

• The Hartford chapter had a very interactive program on a “Hold vs Sell” approach.  Most commercial real estate investors fall into one of two general categories.  The first group prefers to develop and hold (or buy and hold) their real estate investments for long-term capital growth and cash flow.  The second group prefers to develop or reposition and sell assets for quicker profits, but at potentially higher risk. Both strategies have their own set of advantages and disadvantages, risks and rewards.  Every commercial real estate investor should evaluate both of these strategies before making an investment decision.    Brad Hutensky of Hutensky Capital Partners and Jonathan Keller of The Fremont Group discussed their respective approaches.  Pat Mulready of CBRE and a past REFA-CT president, moderated the program.

Shown (from left) are: Peter Malkin and Tony Malkin

• The Hartford chapter of REFA is also had Dr. Edison Lui, CEO of Jackson Labs as its special guest speaker for the November 16^th breakfast meeting.         

Dr. Lui discussed Jackson Labs history, their Farmington facility and provide updates on incredible ongoing research and collaborations with UConn and others in the health care industry.

Social Media & REFA

REFA is now on Facebook and Twitter!  Do you “follow” us on Twitter?  Did you “Like” us on Facebook?

If not – here are a few easy steps to help you join us in the social media craze.

If you don’t have a Facebook account, you can sign up for one in a few easy steps. To sign up for a brand new account, enter your name, birthday, gender and email address into the form on www.facebook.com.  Then, pick a password.  After you complete the sign up form, Facebook will send an email to the address you provided.  Just click the confirmation link to complete the sign up process.

Once your account is established, log in.  In the search box type Real Estate Finance Association of CT.  Click the like button.  It is that easy to become of fan of the REFA on Facebook.  Anytime REFA posts it will show up on your news feed.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, go to www.Twitter.com and find the sign up box, or go directly to https://twitter.com/signup.  Enter your name, your email address, and a password.  Click sign up for Twitter.  On the next page, select a username – type your own or choose one that Twitter has suggested.  They will tell you if the one you want is available.  (Usernames are unique identifiers on Twitter).  Click Create my account. (You may be asked to complete a Captcha to let them know you are human).  Next you just need to begin finding and following accounts that interest you.  Following others means you are subscribing to their tweets.

Once your Twitter account is established, log in and search for @CTREFA and click follow.

REFA looks forward to increasing communications with our members through social media.

Al Mirin is the president of the Real Estate Finance Association of Connecticut, Bloomfield, Conn.