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REBNY Ballroom final

Ballroom Waltz: A Minute-By-Minute Account of Last Night’s REBNY Gala

Thursday’s Real Estate Board of New York gala packed an estimated 2,400 guests into the Hilton New York’s overstuffed Grand Ballroom—an increase from last year by about 200. The Commercial Observer walked the room, hobnobbed with brokers and landlords and taste-tested a dinner of steak and potatoes while washing it all down with a few stiff drinks. Staff Reporters Karsten Strauss and Al Barbarino get the inside dish.

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The Sit-Down

Anita Durst and colleague Kim Schnaubert, development director of Chashama. (Photo courtesy Kiki Conway)

Anita’s Way: Douglas Durst’s Eldest Daughter Merges Art with Real Estate

Since launching Chashama 17 years ago out of her father Douglas Durst’s building on 44th Street in Times Square, Anita Durst has helped locate affordable or free studio and gallery space for hundreds of artists in all five boroughs. With a portfolio of 17 spaces, donated by the likes of Rockrose Development and New York City, Chashama currently manages an estimated $2 million in real estate. On the eve of the group’s Gala Monday, Mr. Durst’s eldest daughter spoke to The Commercial Observer about lessons learned from her famous family, what’s in store for her arts program in the upcoming months, and how dad helped her land a role on the sitcom 30 Rock. Read More

The Sit-Down

Thomas Elghanayan

Elghanayanville

With three dozen projects underway in Long Island City, the brothers behind Rockrose Development—two of whom split to form TF Cornerstone in 2009—are poised to compete against one another for prize renters and retailers in what is rapidly becoming Queens’s answer to Williamsburg and Dumbo. TF Cornerstone chairman Thomas Elghanayan spoke to The Commercial Observer about the EastCoast, his firm’s waterfront rental complex, the infamous Rockrose Development coin toss, and his tense relationship with brother Henry Elghanayan, chief executive of Rockrose Development. Read More