| Finard Properties' Bill Finard joined the likes of Ed Linde, Robert Beal, and Arthur Segel Thursday at Combined Jewish Philanthropies' annual Real Estate, Construction & Design dinner, taking home the Edwin N. Sidman Leadership Award. |
| 300 developers, designers, investors, brokers, and lenders (who wasn't there?) paid homage and picked up their own kudos for raising $9M for charity last year. Bill's father ushered his clan into CRE development, management, and finance 53 years ago. Introduced by his son and business partner Todd, Bill remembered visiting his father's office as a boy and witnessing dad's concern not only for the elevator operator but also his wife and children. And so Bill exhorts his grandson to help others ?navigate through life? as others have helped him. |
| Gov. Deval Patrick says his administration is working to ?crack the code? on affordable housing in one of the nation's most expensive places to live, as the state has already done on health insurance. NAIOP's David Begelfer wondered aloud whether the administration can speed up CRE permitting, to which the governor responded it's already done so, from 24 to six monthsfor some projects. He says his policies will help grow the economy (to the benefit of real estate) by focusing on education, innovation, and infrastructure like the country's first offshore wind farm (groans and applause mixed together on that one). |
| The governor's keynote came before dinner, and then, given the choice between networking and the plates landing in front of them, the CRE-ers chose ... schmoozing. As soon as the speeches resumed, though, it was time to dig into the chicken. |
| We snapped the Samuels & Associates crew: Peter Sougarides(white shirt, blue tie), Joel Sklar and Steve Samuels, who certainly have reason to celebrate. Last week, they closed the $530M purchase of Landmark Center, giving the company control of about eight acres in the once-overlooked Fenway neighborhood between the ballpark and Longwood Medical Area. Steve has long been an urban retail dvelopment pioneer. Back in the early '90s, he built the South Bay Center next to the Expressway, shrugging off commercial concerns of safety, theft, and mixing racial groups |
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