2015 absolutely flew by, to the point where when we started getting invitations to holiday parties, it was frankly a little depressing. But Bisnow got over that when we actually went to some commercial real estate holiday parties this week, none bigger than AOBA's 550-person bash, held at the Four Seasons in Georgetown on Wednesday.
The Apartment and Office Building Association of DC pulled out all the stops for the soirée, serving lobster rolls, crab legs, PF Chang's-style lettuce wraps (unfairly delicious), with two bands in three rooms and a half-dozen bars. We snapped AOBA's Nicola Whiteman, Brian Gordon, Tishman Speyer Properties director Sean Warfield (AOBA's current president), AOBA's Kirsten Bowden and Ron Wineholt.
After AOBA's bash, we moseyed down M Street in Georgetown to the party held by Ritz Banc Group at, where else, the Ritz-Carlton. We chatted with co-founders and managing directors Amer El Souki and Nasr El-Hage enjoying themselves. RBG started in 2012, backed by Saudi investors wanting to enter US commercial real estate.
Two guys happy to do business with—or, at the very least, celebrate—with Nasr and Amer: Mark Wooters of Cushman & Wakefield and Daniel S. Irvin of Smith-Charles Associates.
The week of parties got started in Tysons, with Transwestern's holiday party. They moved into Macerich's Tysons Tower in June and got to show off their digs to a party of more than 100 people. Snapped here: Transwestern's Chaise Schmidt, Ken Marks and Bernie McKeever.
Also enjoying themselves: Westbrook Partners' Jon Cummings and Transwestern's Mark Minich and Ben Lincoln.
We closed out the week downtown last night, at a joint CBRE-Jamestown Properties party at One Metro Center. The building, also repped by Lincoln Property Co, has 110k SF of available space and is anchored by White & Case on the top two floors (also occupied by McClatchy News, MetroOffices and RTI).
After chowing down on more lobster rolls and beef short ribs (Bisnow's waistline is New Year's resolution-ready), we snapped Jamestown's Steve Yeager and Shena Sabens, CBRE's Randy Harrell, Lincoln Property's Doug Hoffman, Melissa Byrd and Joe Coleman, also from CBRE.
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