John Zuccotti's Big Day
We were on hand Thursday as the New York Building Congress presented Brookfield co-chairman John Zuccotti (left) with its Jack & Lewis Rudin Award for service to NYC. (We snapped him with NYBC prez Dick Anderson.) John has quite the storied history here—chairman of the NYC Planning Commission at age 33, the City's first deputy mayor at age 35, starting a law firm at 40 (right before a real estate collapse), and REBNY chairman, among other roles. He spoke of getting shot at in Venezuela while building there, working during a time when the mayor and governor hated each other, bankruptcies, real estate downturns, and Brookfield's role in Downtown's rebuilding after 9/11. "I'm a downside specialist," he jokes. "I should have received an award for damage control officer."
Above, luncheon chairs Jonathan Resnick of Jack Resnick & Sons and Willis North America's Todd Jones flank NYBC chairman Tom Scarangello of Thornton Tomasetti and the luncheon's guests of honor, AECOM executive chairman John Dionisio and Gilbane chairman Thomas Gilbane. Both received leadership awards for their professional and civic accomplishments. John, the immediate past chair of NYBC, has been with AECOM for over 40 years, tripling its revenue, doubling its workforce, and overseeing one of the largest engineering IPOs ever, as well as forming the NYBC task force on NYC storm preparedness after Sandy. Tom, who joined his company in 1970, has expanded Gilbane to over 50 offices and was noted for his extensive community work.
1,100 industry pros packed the Hilton ballroom for the org's 93rd annual leadership luncheon, bringing in over $800k. (Consider that when it was first held, in 1921, icons like the Empire State and Chrysler buildings weren't even built yet.) Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen also updated the crowd on Mayor de Blasio's efforts of building 200,000 affordable housing units during a "fundamental housing crisis," noting the administration would help the building industry achieve this through cutting permit, approval, and certification times as well as unlocking new capacity for denser construction.
