The city’s most ingenious deals of 2017 were transactions that moved a union and its funds, created a new women’s dorm within space built for offices, and made possible multiple deals for buildings, air rights, sites, tenant buyouts and relocations that resulted in construction of both an affordable rental and a tall luxury condominium tower.
The Real Estate Board of New York’s prestigious 74th annual commercial sales and leasing awards were handed out Tuesday night by its sales brokers committee at Club 101 on Park Avenue.
The first prize — the Henry Hart Rice Achievement Award — was won by Mary Ann Tighe and Ken Meyerson of CBRE and Jonathan Serko of Cushman & Wakefield.
Their entry, “A Union of Rivals: CBRE and C&W Find 1199 a Home,” resulted in the move by health care union 1199SEIU and its benefit funds to 498 Seventh Ave. through the negotiation of two separate leases for separate spaces in the same building.
This is Tighe’s eighth and Meyerson’s second most ingenious deal of the year award.
Brokers Mark Weiss and Richard Bernstein of Cushman & Wakefield took home the second prize — the Robert T. Lawrence Memorial Award — for “Repurposing a New Building While Addressing Manhattan’s Dearth of Dormitory Space” at One West End Ave. for the Orthodox women of Touro College.
This is the fourth deal of the year award for Weiss.
The third prize — the Edward S. Gordon Memorial Award — was won by Geoffrey Newman of Newmark Knight Frank for his entry, “Assembling an Icon — How One Broker’s Tenacity and Vision Made 45 East 22nd Street Possible.”
Newman’s transactions allowed for the construction of Ian Bruce Eichner’s luxury condominium tower and a separate affordable housing project.
A total of 15 sale, lease and finance transactions were competing for these ingenious brokerage awards.
Congratulations to all the winners.