Indeed, along with veteran prognosticators Robert Knakal, Sam Chandan, Richard Persichetti and Robert Sammons (back from a short hiatus), we're now happy to welcome David Greene, Christopher Havens, Barry LePatner, Kenneth McCarthy, J.D. Parker, Joshua Siegelman and Scott Spector. Find web-exclusive columns along the right rail of our website every week.

Over the course of five days last week, thousands of you voted in our first annual Power 100 Reader's Poll. In the end, however, the balance of power swung like a pendulum with every new tweet and social media update posted by real estate professionals committed to seeing their colleagues reach the top.

As it turns out, no company or individual has mastered the ability of self-promotion and branding quite like The Trump Organization, which snagged 8 percent of the vote in part through a dedicated social media campaign and an old-fashioned word-of-mouth strategy. Mr. Trump, the father-in-law of Jared Kushner, the owner of The Commercial Observer, has proven once again that the medium is the message.

Below, the full results of our first-ever Power 100 Reader's Poll. Check back tomorrow for the official Power 100 list.

The Chicago Sun-Times, where Mr. Ebert wrote his award-winning column for 46 years, published this obituary earlier today.

22nd Annual RELA Networking Celebration.

Mix and mingle alongside 500 industry insiders, tonight at the 22nd Annual RELA Networking Celebration. Hosted at Cipriani la Specialita, just across the street from Grand Central Station, the event promises to kick off the new year in style, offering opportunities for established leaders and up-and-comers alike to share in the excitement of what 2013 has in store.

The Real Estate Lenders Association, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation formed in 1991 to provide a forum for real estate lenders and equity investors to advance their knowledge and expertise in their industry. Membership is exclusive to institutions involved in commercial real estate debt and equity. Members receive unparalleled access to networking, education and career growth opportunities. To join, click here.

Beside fundraising for DiabetesResearch.org, a research facility at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine where proceeds are now headed, event organizers honored Trinity Real Estate Chief Executive Jason Pizer with its Leadership Award.

Meanwhile, David Ushery, an anchor from NBC4 New York and host of “The Debrief with David Ushery,” emceed the black tie gala.

Names no less impressive than Howard Lutnick of BGC Partners and Leslie Himmel of Himmel + Meringoff Properties mingled with brokers from M&T Bank, Saber Real Estate Advisors and Westerman Ball Ederer Miller & Sharfstein, just to name a few of the lenders on hand during a night of festivities and holiday cheer.

Photography by Steve Friedman.

All of the funds raised during a special silent auction at the event were earmarked for Hurricane Sandy rebuilding efforts, while organizers honored Robert J. Ivanhoe as its National Jewish Health Humanitarian Award recipient.

Photography by Steve Friedman.

Machers including CBRE’s Mary Ann Tighe, Silverstein Properties’ Larry Silverstein and Tishman Speyer’s Rob Speyer tried their best at small talk as full time Fried Frank real estate lawyer and part-time party promoter Jonathan Mechanic greeted guests throughout the night.

Photography by Steve Friedman.

Executives from the Children’s Place and CVS Realty mingled with brokers who wanted their business, all night long.

Photography by Steve Friedman.

Mr. Peebles, who was honored alongside Marv Berenblum, the chairman and chief executive of National Executive Service Corps, was accompanied by more than 120 guests, who enjoyed the soothing sounds of the Young People’s Chorus of New York, whose cherub-like voices entertained a rapt Yale Club audience.

But the problems created by such disparities still persist, as evidenced by myriad anecdotes relayed to Commercial Observer reporters during interviews last week. Below, one executive’s sordid tale of a negotiation in the early ’00s with a well-known financial services company honcho and her well-behaved male boss on the eve of the Great Recession.

Names and details have been redacted to protect the innocent.

We had a large block of space with a major financial services company—this is [REDACTED]—and [REDACTED] and I go in there to discuss a 200,000-square-foot lease. It’s a big deal. It would be a big deal if the building were in Midtown. And we’re having a difficult time coming to terms. And [REDACTED] wants to see us.

Now, [REDACTED] is a big deal. But [REDACTED], at the time, was a huge deal. He was riding high, really at the top of his game. And [REDACTED] was untouchable in so many ways, at least in the view of the Wall Street folks. They had great credit; they were [REDACTED]. This was [REDACTED] for a very big amount of space.

At the time, we were building other developments—the [REDACTED] and [REDACTED]. When we got into his office, it was truly absurd. Like a den, this dark cave—a man cave. We literally sat down and he hit a button and the massive door closed behind you. It was that crazy.

He then proceeds to sit down in front of us, light a fat cigar and hoist his feet up onto his desk. Really, who does that? So, obviously he’s a character.

Then he says, “I was reading the [REDACTED] today, and I saw you’re building with [REDACTED]. Boy, they really love [REDACTED] at the [REDACTED].” He kind of made reference to the fact that the [REDACTED] has an issue with [REDACTED] because they think [REDACTED] is against developing [REDACTED] because they’re [REDACTED] with us in Soho. So, he said, “They think you’re in bed with [REDACTED].”

He said, “Oh, I wouldn’t mind being in bed with you.”

And [REDACTED] is sitting there. And we sort of let it go. Then he started talking about employees at his company’s other location in [REDACTED]. And he says, “You know, these people could be in fucking Calcutta for all I care. So I’m not really here to fight for this lease. I don’t care where these people are.”

“But let’s talk about you,” he said. “Tell me what you do and what you’re doing here.”

And [REDACTED] says, “Well, [REDACTED] practically runs the company for me. She does all the [REDACTED].” And [REDACTED] starts making these really inappropriate overtures and comments—everything from “getting into bed together” to “it must be nice to have someone like her around, huh [REDACTED]?” to “Gee, let’s not talk about the real estate transaction. Maybe I want to have you around me.”

During this meeting he really reduced me to a piece of property. And he did it so blatantly and so offensively that at some point [REDACTED] and I looked at each other and we said that we weren’t certain there was anything more to talk about, that we’d be in touch with the brokers and we would be going on our way.

So we walked out of the meeting, but not in a way—well, we should have done even more than that, because it was so offensive.

And he had the broker call me the next day, which was so—again, it was so absurd. Here’s a man who essentially runs this multibillion dollar empire who can’t comport himself in a meeting if there’s a woman in the room. And historically he had women around him in trading positions. And trading is a difficult spot.

I said to myself, it did not feel good to be a real estate professional that day. But what must it feel like to be in trading at [REDACTED] if you’re a woman?

[REDACTED] and I, for a long time, had a lot of conversations about the need for [REDACTED] to have his comeuppance. But it put us all in a jam—it was a huge transaction, with [REDACTED]. And [REDACTED] really wanted to get up and throw the stapler at the guy. But he didn’t—we left. And we almost left in defeat in the sense that we hadn’t told him what we wanted to tell him. We both felt like we needed a shower.

I said to myself—all the advancements you think we’ve made, that this could happen in the corridors of power—I think that this was not different from how he dealt with most everybody. And I’m sure women in brokerage are still treated that way.

I was humiliated, horrified. From then on I dealt with the broker. And we got the deal done. [REDACTED] was just in it to play. We dug in on the deal points, and that’s how we got our revenge. We said: he’s never leaving. He doesn’t care. He’s going to pay the number. He’d shown his hand—it was a pimple on the ass of an elephant.

He really did himself a disservice. We had, clearly, no reason to accommodate him. We ended up making a better real estate deal but recognized we had no relationship at the top of that company and never wanted to see him again. We dealt with his underlings. And all I got to do was read about his demise in the paper.

Mortgage Observer Weekly

Each Friday morning you will find our exclusive stories on the latest transactions, informative charts, Q&As and more.

Sure, it would include market predictions and boilerplate real estate stuff, like views on Midtown South’s dramatic uptick in popularity and its ongoing trendiness among tech upstarts. But it would also feature more intimate questions about politics and family, art and personal achievement. In short, it would be our platonic ideal of a night out with some of the most successful businessmen in New York.

And to our surprise, real estate owners responded enthusiastically and, in many cases, with a level of candor previously unseen in an industry where owners often play their cards close to the vest. Indeed, real estate titans like Anthony Malkin, Jason Pizer and Donald Trump let down their guard—if only for a moment—to share a lifetime of personal wisdom, market predictions and some strongly held convictions, from the outcome of November’s presidential elections to a dollop of property tax angst.

However, even some of the omissions in their answers to our inquisition were telling. When asked, “Is LEED certification all it’s cracked up to be?” Douglas Durst, the co-chairman of the Durst Organization, widely considered to be one of the real estate industry’s most outspoken boosters of sustainable building, avoided the question altogether. So did a few political animals when asked to predict the elections.

As much as possible, we viewed this, our First Annual Owners Inquisition, as an opportunity to include the city’s diverse array of landlords, from real estate investment trusts like SL Green and Vornado—who together command in excess of 50 million square feet of property in Manhattan—to smaller, nimbler companies like RXR Realty, Newmark Holdings and a host of other players whose well-known names dot the borough’s skyline. The only requirement, in fact, was that the submissions come from owners boasting property in Manhattan rather than the outer boroughs, which hundreds of additional landlords call home.

Between July and September, we sent questionnaires to the media liaisons of the 50 largest Manhattan real estate owners, asking that they forward the questions to their company’s president, chief executive and chairman. In some cases we reached out to the principals themselves, to managing directors or anyone else with access to decision-makers. Still later, we publicized the project through Twitter, The Commercial Observer’s own website and other avenues. By last month, with dozens of questionnaires already submitted, we added a second layer of landlord profiles in an effort to create as comprehensive a list of the industry’s ownership community as possible.

As a result, the who’s who of commercial real estate owners that follows is a lovely cross-section of strong personalities, young up-and-comers and brash industry veterans, all going above and beyond to share their insights with the industry they lead.—Jotham Sederstrom, Editor-in-ChiefClick to view slideshow.