Reeling in the Years With the Real Estate Board of New York: In their own words, brokers and owners tell the tale of REBNY’s past half century
By Jotham Sederstrom January 17, 2012 10:30 am
reprintsThe 1990s to Now: Boom and Bust
Mr. Hauspurg: Then, of course, the market turned and got worse in the early ’90s, and attendance at the banquets dropped markedly. Lot’s of people left the business—it was an awful time. I remember in the darkest days of it, which were ’91 or ’92, someone came up with the slogan “stay alive ’til ’95,” and, sure enough, it was actually ’95 when the market started to get healthy and turn again and attendance again returned to the banquet.
Mr. Siegel: The best of all was when Eddie Gordon, my partner, passed away in [2000] and I knew nobody would be quiet and I was asked to give a eulogy, and I kind of went “phewww, phewwww” into the microphone and I said, “I am going to ask you all to be quiet for 60 friggin’ seconds in honor of an icon of this business. One of the biggest real estate men we’ve ever had in this city of New York and in his memory I’d like 60 seconds of silence at a dinner which never had 1 second of silence.” And all of a sudden, I kept shushing and shushing, and the word spread and it was dead silence in Eddie’s honor … for about 12 seconds. [Laughs.] I didn’t even get a half a minute, but you know what, I got 12 seconds and I can tell you right now, I don’t think anyone’s ever gotten anything close, including Giuliani [and] Bloomberg.
Today, with people from every corner of the commercial real estate industry attending the gala, many REBNY vets believe it will continue to be a draw for years to come.
Mr. Resnick: I think over the last 20 years we’ve been averaging over 2,000 people, even in the bad times. They’re a lot younger, which I guess is a natural transition, that the young start kicking out the older ones. And hopefully the real estate board will be important to all of them.
Mr. DiCapua: We have 2000-plus [attendees] every year at the banquet. Back in the ’70s, it was half of that. It wasn’t anything close to those numbers. People feel the need to see and be seen, and if they’re not there they are missing out on some very substantial networking.
Ms. Tighe: The mayor and the governor still come usually just to the cocktail hour. And the other public officials come and sit on the dais, but we don’t subject them to the experience of speaking. I have to tell you that [the constant banter] is part of the tradition of the event. I’ve now come to the belief that people would be alarmed if suddenly folks were quiet.
Ed Koch (former mayor of New York): I remember who they are but I have nothing anecdotal to tell you.
drosen@observer.com
