Land may be the last frontier, the last place in NYC where investors can get returns now that distressed debt is pretty much taken care of, says Massey Knakal’s James Nelson, whom we snapped with Capital One Multifamily Finance’s Michael Edelman at a recent Young Mortgage Bankers Association lunch. (We're still waiting to see whether the 60 guilders that Peter Minuit paid the Native Americans for Manhattan pencils out.) James was just hired to sell a non-performing loan in Far Rockaway, which he jokes may be the last distressed loan left in the city.
But Benedict Realty Group prez Daniel Benedict, flanked by HFF’s Evan Pariser and New York Community Bank’s Jim Carpenter, questions the 300% sales-price spread from Brooklyn to Manhattan, doubting that Manhattan rents are really three times as high. Rising land prices, he says, are always the first indication of a bubble. (Children's birthday parties also are a good sign that bubbles are imminent.)
We also snapped the three women on YMBA’s board: HFF’s Jenny Keller, HSBC’s Gillian Murray, and Insignia National Title’s Ruanna Sakols.
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