Real Estate Board of New York Honorees 2026: Check the Temperature

It might be fair to say that in January 2026, on the cusp of the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual banquet, the weather is blowing hot and cold.

There was hotness — lots of hotness, in fact — when after years of fits and starts the New York City office market had an honest-to-goodness excellent year of leasing. Just a few weeks ago Colliers’ Frank Wallach referred to the most recent data in the fourth quarter of 2025 as a “watershed moment” in the road to recovery, with the best figures since 2019.

And it was not due to big, hulking leases that distort the whole view of the market, either, but to a healthy stream of more normal ones. (See Anna Staropoli’s story.)

That’s hot.

Back in November, prices for homes in New York City were up 20.5 percent year-over-year from the previous November. And as for luxury homes? They were up an astounding 43.1 percent! Hotter still.

But then there’s the cold stuff.

The same month that multimillion-dollar condos were flying off the shelf, Zorhan Mamdani was elected the first democratic socialist mayor on a broad platform of rent freezes. (Now, that’s cold.)

As a late Festivus gift, Mamdani likewise instituted “rental ripoff” public hearings to get New York City tenants in touch with their inner Frank Costanza in full “airing of the grievances,” leaving landlords as cringing, helpless Georges.

And we haven’t even mentioned the cold front heading up from Washington. Specifically, we’re talking about the explosive news out of D.C. last week with Jerome Powell putting out a video revealing he is under criminal investigation — which the Federal Reserve chairman claims is an attempt to pressure him into cutting interest rates. (See Brian Pascus’s story.)

How should REBNY be handling these many issues?

When Commercial Observer sat down with James Whelan, he seemed largely unfazed.

Regarding the new mayor, REBNY’s president sounded upbeat. “He’s very personable and a very good listener,” Whelan said of his first meeting with the mayor. Contact since then “has been positive.”

And, while the rhetoric going into November was scathing between Mamdani and CRE, there are indisputable points of common interest. 

“Nearly 50 percent of the locally gathered taxes in New York City come from real estate to pay for essential services,” said Sandhya Espitia in Zoe Rosenberg’s profile of REBNY’s chief operating officer. “We are New York City’s No. 1 civic partner.”

The mayor has indicated that the city needs more housing, and the only way he’ll be able to effect that would be to opt in commercial real estate. Mamdani has likewise bandied about ambitious new child care proposals, something that might give a boost to the already revived office market. (More people with child care means more reason to go into the office than working from home. But see Larry Getlen’s story.)

Of course, the REBNY banquet this week is not merely about the industry’s relationship with the local, state and federal governments — it’s about the men and women in the industry, their needs, their achievements and their recognition. It’s about the veterans who are being honored — Anita Laremont, David Karnovsky, Winston Fisher, Christine Quinn, Kevin Hoey, Jeff Gural, James Wacht and Camille McGratty (on the following slides) — and the next generation (see Amanda Schiavo’s story about this year’s crop of REBNY fellows).

So dress warm! Or light. Actually, we’re not sure, either. —Max Gross

Winston Fisher
Partner at Fisher Brothers and CEO of Area15
The Kenneth R. Gerrety Humanitarian Award

The civic engagements (and political donations) of most real estate developers are often largely confined to organizations and politicians who will help get their projects approved.

But not Winston Fisher. He joined Fisher Brothers in 2000, working through the ranks to become a partner, part of the third generation leading the Fisher family’s commercial real estate ownership and development business, which was founded in 1915. Today, the company boasts a portfolio that spans nearly 9 million square feet across New York, Washington, D.C., Florida and Las Vegas.

Under his leadership, the firm, which made its name in New York’s Midtown office market, has managed to weather recent storms, such as the rise of remote work and the jingle-jangle of borrowing costs since the pandemic. Last year, the firm refinanced its marquee 50-story 1345 Sixth Avenue office building, valuing it at a healthy $1.4 billion and selling a minority stake to Blackstone. At the same time, Fisher the firm increased its own stake in the tower.

In the world of philanthropy, Fisher has sat on countless boards, including as a life trustee of his alma mater, Syracuse University. In 2023, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul nominated Fisher to serve on the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a nomination later confirmed by the New York Senate.

While he certainly admits that he’s lived a charmed life, Fisher has also observed the realities faced by those less fortunate.

“With divorced parents, I had a chance to live in two different worlds,” Fisher said. “My grandfather was an insurance salesman. He had gone to law school, but he had four kids and couldn’t afford to be a lawyer and support his family. And my grandmother ran the food system for Maplewood, N.J.”

Fisher’s own civic engagement has taken on quite an expansive view and focused on the demise of the middle class.

“It’s great to talk — I do a lot of it — but to be active is actually what makes a tangible difference,” Fisher explained. “I thought the signature political issue of our time was the decline of the middle class. That was a belief I had in 2014.”

Putting words into action in 2015, he co-founded the Middle Class Jobs Project with the Center for an Urban Future, a nonpartisan policy organization. The organization studies issues facing middle-class job growth in New York and advocates for practical solutions.

In 2020, he also authored a book with former Kansas City, Mo., Mayor Sly James called The Opportunity Agenda: A Bold Democratic Plan to Grow the Middle Class. The book offers policy solutions to the Democratic Party to invigorate voters across the political spectrum.

“I’m a capitalist,” Fisher said. “I don’t want to pretend I’m not, but I also think you need to have fair playing fields.”

He’s tried to impart those values within his own organizations. He launched a workforce development program, which provides internships at Fisher Brothers for high-performing, underprivileged students in the City University of New York system.

Family-run real estate companies “are anchored in New York. They are anchored in their community because they own physical assets and cannot be picked up,” Fisher said. “They do care.” —Julia Echikson

Jeffrey Gural
Chairman at GFP Real Estate
The Bernard H. Mendik Lifetime Leadership in Real Estate Award

Jeff Gural has for decades been weaving a tapestry of his own in the Garment District and lower-key office markets, carrying on a tradition passed down from his father that remains the foundation of the commercial real estate dynasty.

Continuously tending to properties in these areas of Manhattan has grown Gural’s GFP Real Estate nicely. That includes major office-to-residential conversions like 25 Water Street or 100 Gold Street in the Financial District — never mind the firm’s work with partners on reconfiguring the triangularly iconic Flatiron Building into condos.

Now 83, Gural began working in 1972 in the family business, then known as Newmark Grubb, and he took control of the company in 1978. What would become known as GFP Real Estate focused on a “legacy portfolio” of Class B and C offices leased in part to nonprofit organizations and tech companies. Gural and partner Barry Gosin grew Newmark Grubb by aggressively buying up commercial and residential properties. The firm then merged with London-based real estate firm Knight Frank in 2006, creating Newmark Knight Frank, which is now known globally as simply Newmark after a 2011 acquisition by BGC Partners.

In 2017, when Newmark split away completely, Gural became chairman of GFP Real Estate, closely guarding the family’s legacy portfolio.

Despite GFP Real Estate owning some premier buildings, its legacy portfolio continues to be the breadbasket of the family business, attracting tenants through multiple economic cycles and holding on to relevance regardless of what industries dominate.

“We have one Plaza District building, 515 Madison Avenue, which does not appeal to the tech guys — they want to be where it’s cool, and, luckily, SoHo, the Village, Tribeca, Chelsea are cool, so it’s worked out well,” Gural said. “When COVID hit, we got crushed. … We had to come back from the depths of work from home, and I would say that our portfolio is in good shape.”

GFP recently refinanced two buildings in Manhattan and one in Jersey City, N.J. In 2022, it refinanced several more — before interest rates sharply increased — locking in good terms.

“I don’t envision that we’ll be giving any of the keys back, unlike bigger companies than us,” Gural said. “In my business, we deal with mainly smaller tenants. We don’t have tenants with 200,000, 300,000 square feet, and the key to success is not having too much debt. The debt you have should always have 30-year amortization, not interest-only. The only protection you have against rising interest rates is amortization.”

Having cash reserves has also been key to Gural’s success, he said, especially through the last few years, with the expense of building out space for new tenants costing just as much as in Class A spaces. Plus, due to competition, GFP also has a number of concessions it needs to make to potential tenants to get space leased.

“There are a lot of landlords who, when times were good, distributed all the money, had interest-only loans,” Gural said. “Unless the building value went up by 50 percent, which it probably didn’t, you have no choice but to give the bank back the keys, sell it, or convert it.” Gural, who owns two upstate New York farms where he breeds racehorses, is also looking to turn his privately owned “racino” called Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, N.J., into a full-fledged casino through a constitutional amendment with the state government.

More than anything professionally, though, Gural hopes that later generations of his family will hang on to GFP’s legacy office portfolio and maintain that baseline for the family business.

“My goal is to make sure that the legacy buildings that we have will continue to cash-flow so that I’ll be able to make distributions to the family,” Gural said. “I want to know that my children, grandchildren and my sisters — they’re not going to be phenomenally wealthy, but they’ll be able to live an upper middle-class lifestyle. … Two of my five grandchildren are working for me now.” —Mark Hallum

Kevin Hoey
Executive vice president at L&L Holding
George M. Brooker Management Executive of the Year Award

L&L Holding’s Kevin Hoey understands the guts of New York City properties better than most. The executive vice president, who is REBNY’s 2026 George M. Brooker Management Executive of the Year honoree, began his career in the trades.

The Westchester County native started out as a plumber in the early 1980s, though he soon transitioned to electrical work — “I noticed that they were wearing golf shirts,” Hoey told Commercial Observer — and eventually became a card-carrying journeyman of his local electricians union. Although he ultimately went back to school to study facility and property management after the markets crashed later that decade, Hoey said his early experiences helped inform his management ethos.

“One of the bedrock principles that I’ve always worked with is always treat people like you want to be treated yourself, no matter who they are, what position, what task, whoever they may be in the industry,” Hoey said. “I’ve also worked with the mantra: I usually don’t ask people to do something that I (a) haven’t already done myself, or (b) wouldn’t do myself.”

The rewards of that mindset are self-evident. Hoey was picked up by Tishman Speyer in 1991 not long after graduating from Iona University, eventually overseeing management at iconic New York City properties such as Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler Building. It’s a distinction Hoey shares with 2025 Brooker Award honoree Thomas Lloyd, who managed the same larger-than-life properties prior to Lloyd’s current role at CBRE.

Hoey left Tishman Speyer in 1999, jumping between similar roles at Witkoff Group, Capital Properties and Cushman & Wakefield throughout the 2000s and early 2010s. By early 2013, Hoey found himself as vice president of operations at L&L. Thirteen years later, Hoey oversees the firm’s entire portfolio, including monumental assets such as 425 Park Avenue, Terminal Warehouse and TSX Broadway.

After nearly 40 years in the industry, Hoey said that basic tenant demands have more or less stayed the same: strong locations, essential building systems, security, etc. What has changed, Hoey said, is office culture, particularly since the pandemic.

“Thirty years ago, we never would have envisioned having an amenity space at a building like 425 Park Avenue being managed by Jean-Georges,” Hoey said, referring to famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. “It was unfathomable in the 1980s and `90s to think that there would ever be an Irish pub located somewhere in the middle of 270 Park Avenue, which is what J.P. Morgan Chase has done. … The focus on wellness was not even a thought 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and now it’s commonplace. It’s part of the dynamic of the industry now. Landlords need to provide that comfortable environment with amenity space or fitness centers, or whatever is trendy today, to attract the companies to move into the buildings, to take occupancy. If you don’t have a quality amenity space, you don’t get visited by brokers.”

Hoey, recipient of REBNY’s 2024 John M. Griffin Community Service Award, also cares deeply about charitable work, particularly causes affecting children. Since the early 1990s, for example, he has been involved with the Torch Foundation, a nonprofit that provides free leadership and social-emotional intelligence workshops. At the end of the day, Hoey has always felt the pull to give back, he said.

“I took a moment [recently] and had what I would say was an aha moment,” Hoey said. “I realized, ‘Oh, I’ve just been trying to do the right thing in my career with the people that I work for, the teams that I work with.’ And, wow, I guess I’ve been doing something right, because REBNY has acknowledged it. It’s an honor to have my career — of what I do, day to day, every day, five days a week — be recognized. It really is really the Oscar of my career.” —Nick Trombola

David Karnovsky
Partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
The Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Award

Hudson Yards didn’t just spring up overnight into one of New York’s busiest neighborhoods. There were a lot of cooks in that kitchen helping to deliver the vibrant area filled with luxury homes, parks, retail and Class A office space, and one of the talented “chefs” that helped make Hudson Yards happen was David Karnovsky, a partner in the land use practice at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.

Prior to joining the firm in 2014, Karnovsky spent decades advising mayors of New York — Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg — on the legal implications of their major policy plans. A lot of what Karnovsky was advising on would touch on the real estate sector, and he eventually became interested in land use and the impact it had on shaping New York City.

“After working at City Hall for two deputy mayors during the Giuliani years, I became the general counsel to City Planning, which, of course, is the lead land use agency of the city,” he said. “From there, I got deeper into land use and worked on a whole variety of major projects, and the ones I enjoyed the most included Hudson Yards, the special West Chelsea district with the High Line, and the Columbia Manhattanville campus approval that allowed for this huge expansion of the Columbia footprint northward into Manhattanville for the purposes of academic science research.” After working at City Planning for 15 years and dealing with all of the heady issues of major land use from the public sector perspective, Karnovsky decided to apply those skills to the private sector.

He moved to Fried Frank.

“I get to work on the other side of it, but, of course, it really is a collaborative relationship with the city to make these projects work,” he said. “So I was able to work with my former colleagues in advancing a whole series of major projects for the private sector.”

Some of those projects included the new J.P. Morgan Chase headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, Tishman Speyer’s The Spiral building at Hudson Yards, Howard Hughes’ 250 Water Street development, Extell’s 50 West 66 Street, RXR’s 175 Park Avenue, and Two Trees’ River Ring plan in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

“I find land use fascinating because it involves multiple layers of involvement by communities, local people, politicians and professionals like architects and designers,” Karnovsky said. “It really goes to the whole question of what should New York look like, what should be fostered in New York City from the point of view of development. It has always touched me that the projects I work on are in my city, in my neighborhood, and I can see the visible, tangible results of what I’ve worked on.”

Throughout his career, Karnovsky has cultivated a reputation for being thoughtful in his approach and offering solid and wise counsel. His experience and reputation led him to be named as a recipient of the 2026 Real Estate Board of New York’s Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Award. This recognition was created in 1992 as a way to recognize REBNY members who have “a lifetime of exceptional accomplishments in the profession and have made invaluable contributions to New York’s civic welfare,” according to the REBNY website.

“It’s really an honor, and especially gratifying to be recognized for long-term service involving New York City in one way or another, whether it’s in the public sector or the private sector,” Karnovsky said. “To me, it stands as a long-term career that focuses on New York City issues. I fell in love with these New York City issues when I was a much younger lawyer. So I’m really appreciative of the recognition of the various things that I’ve worked on from 1987 until today.” — Amanda Schiavo

Anita Laremont
Partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
The Harry B. Helmsley Distinguished New Yorker Award

Throughout her decades of work on New York land use issues in both the public and private sectors, Fried Frank partner and former executive director of the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) Anita Laremont has found her greatest solace in her Staten Island garden, where she and her husband grow “everything.”

After joking that the chief joy she finds in her garden is that “no one talks back to you,” Laremont notes that her time there actually bears key similarities to her decades-long work in real estate and land use.

“It’s somewhat akin to real estate in that you apply your effort, and there are tangible results,” said Laremont. “And, like real estate, it has lots of challenges, because Mother Nature does what Mother Nature wants. In gardening, you are always trying to make things nurtured and be able to thrive when Mother Nature throws you loops. So the challenges of that are really rewarding.”

Laremont, who attended law school at New York University, worked several public sector jobs. That included over 25 years at the state agency Empire State Development, the last 15 as senior vice president and legal and general counsel, before joining DCP, where she rose to the position of director.

Her greatest public sector accomplishment was the implementation of the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy. “That was something we worked on from the outset of my getting [to DCP],” said Laremont. “It basically says that whenever the city zones property for any private development, they must have a certain percentage of affordable housing. It was a way of addressing the very significant need for affordable housing. I’m very proud of that.”

A partner at Fried Frank since 2022, Laremont helps some of the city’s most prominent developers and institutions navigate the bureaucracy she was once part of.

“It takes years from the point where a developer has a concept to actually getting the project built,” said Laremont. “Moving things through has been something I’m proud of. I’ve worked with clients like the Rudins and J.P. Morgan Chase on projects. We’ve taken things from concept to getting them through City Planning approval, and now they’re being started.”

Perhaps not surprising given the complexity of working with government, Laremont said her extensive public sector experience gives her just a slight advantage when it comes to navigating public bureaucracies.

“It’s still challenging,” she said. “My experience gives me knowledge of where to go and maybe sometimes who to speak to. But you’re still dealing with the bureaucracy, and it is not easy. Nothing about me being involved is a panacea. But I do have an ability to translate what a client needs to what the city’s concerns are in a way that makes it maybe a little more likely that we’ll get to a result.”

Whatever the challenges, after decades of deep involvement in land use issues, Laremont finds the practice of law in the field as fulfilling and rewarding as ever.

“My job is taking something from the concept of an idea, and moving it forward through myriad challenges and issues to get to a place where you have something that is tangible in this world, and fairly permanent in the landscape,” said Laremont. “That’s one of the things I most like about real estate. It’s a physical manifestation of effort that stays in the environment for a long time. Being able to work on things that make the city a more interesting, more contributing place for people to live and work is what keeps me doing this.” —Larry Getlen

Camille McGratty
Head of Real Estate at the Hospital for Special Surgery
The Young Real Estate Professional of the Year Award

As Camille McGratty keeps progressing through her career in commercial real estate, the awards continue to arrive for the native New Yorker.

Ten years ago, McGratty was selected by Commercial Observer as one of the “New Players of Commercial Real Estate and CRE Finance.” At the time, she was only 29 years old and already a vice president at Silverstein Properties.

This year, McGratty will be honored by REBNY for “outstanding professional achievements and civic leadership as a rising star in the industry.” She is currently the head of real estate at the Hospital for Special Surgery, the oldest and top-ranked orthopedic hospital in the U.S. that saw 200,000 patients come through its doors last year.

“I’m very excited to be getting the award,” McGratty told CO. “I feel really honored to be included with such a great group of people who have won the award before I have.”

Previous winners of the REBNY rising star award include Cushman & Wakefield’s Ron Lo Russo, Avison Young’s James Nelson and SL Green’s Laura Jackson.

McGratty started her career in 2008 at what was then Savills Studley (now Savills), where she worked as a tenant rep broker, before she moved to Cushman & Wakefield and became the main conduit to health care giant Pfizer in the brokerage’s corporate occupier and investor services group, primarily on the disposition of Pfizer’s nearly 3 million-square-foot corporate campus in New York’s Rockland County.

But it was at Silverstein Properties, which she joined in 2013, where she made her mark over the nine years she served as vice president of leasing. That meant managing the tenancy of an office portfolio that spanned 11.5 million square feet of space.

Major New York City buildings she’s leased include 3 World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, 7 World Trade Center, 120 Broadway, 120 Wall Street, 1177 Avenue of the Americas, and 529 Fifth Avenue, as well as 1735 Market Street in Philadelphia.

At HSS, which she joined in 2022, McGratty oversees and optimizes the hospital’s entire CRE portfolio, with a focus on geographic expansion and long-term planning. While the hospital’s flagship campus is at 535 East 70th Street in Manhattan, there are orthopedic and rheumatologic centers in New Jersey, Connecticut and Florida. A new campus will open this year in Long Island.

Deals she’s worked on include an expansion of the hospital’s New York City East Side Campus via the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Tower, a 12-story, 94,000-square-foot clinical center that will rise above FDR Drive and the East River, and leasing the bottom eight floors at 1520 First Avenue, a 30-story, 435,000-square-foot medical office tower in Manhattan.

“The infrastructure requirements we have are highly specialized and require deep due diligence and site selection,” said McGratty. “I think that it’s more complicated than a typical office leasing requirement would be.” —Brian Pascus

Christine Quinn
President and CEO of WIN
The John E. Zuccotti Public Service Award

In her decade of leading WIN (formerly called Women in Need), Christine Quinn has guided the nonprofit through policy gains for housing programs while also gaining the support of New York City’s real estate community.

Quinn, a former New York City Council speaker, assumed leadership of WIN in November 2015 and has overseen the organization’s expansion efforts with a sharp increase in shelters and permanent housing for homeless women and children. She also advocated to boost a key city housing voucher allowance to $2,500 from $1,500 and added more job placement programs to help women in need get back on their feet.

“We’ve developed an advocacy agenda that really tries to address what is making people homeless so we can eradicate that, and what do we need to do to make their time in shelter the most productive and effective as possible,” Quinn said. “The way you end the homelessness crisis is by expanding the team working to end it and supporting homeless families, and that includes real estate, business and educational leaders. If everybody is articulating that this is an unacceptable situation and doing what they can in their unique position, we’re going to get a lot of attention from the powers that be in the city and the state.”

WIN, which runs 16 shelters across New York City and over 450 supportive housing units, has received support from the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and partnered with the trade organization to issue a 2024 report on improvements needed to the city’s housing voucher program. Quinn said REBNY has helped to educate small- and medium-size landlords on how the voucher program can serve as a revenue stream for their properties.

Prior to shepherding WIN, Quinn made history as New York City’s first woman City Council speaker, a role she held from 2006 to 2013. After placing third in the Democratic mayoral primary in 2013, Quinn became a special adviser to then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, focused on women’s issues. She is currently vice chair of the New York State Democratic Party and serves on the Democratic National Committee.

Quinn said the public service award being named in honor of the late John Zuccotti, a former New York City deputy mayor and Planning Commission chair during the financially tumultuous mid-1970s, makes the honor especially meaningful for her.  Zuccotti — a real estate developer who chaired REBNY and who was once assistant to the secretary of Housing and Urban Development — is credited for being a leading advocate for rebuilding the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“John was the true definition of public service both when he was in government and when he was out of government,” Quinn said. “We would not have come out of the fiscal crisis the way we did nor would we have come out of 9/11, and we would not have seen downtown rebound the way it did, if it wasn’t for John Zuccotti.” —Andrew Coen

James R. Wacht
Managing principal at Lee & Associates
Louis Smadbeck Memorial Broker Recognition Award

Despite the fact that he is on the Board of Governors for the Real Estate Board of New York, James Wacht missed the meeting where his name was put forth to receive the Louis Smadbeck Memorial Broker Recognition Award.

As if it were a surprise party and he was the guest of honor, his colleagues seamlessly nominated and voted him in as Wacht quietly went about his day and got into the bathtub.

It was only when he was asked to join a Zoom call — and, more consequently, turn on his camera — that he realized what was happening.

“I said, ‘I’m not turning on my camera,’ ” Wacht recalled.

Perhaps he should have expected something spectacular with a career as storied and successful as that of James Wacht.

2026 marks Wacht’s 45th year in commercial real estate. He began his career as an attorney with the Bachner, Tally, Mischer, Brinberg & Polevoy law firm until joining Sierra Realty as general counsel in 1989, before the firm would become Lee & Associates. It took about 11 years before Wacht was named president and principal owner.

Lee & Associates is perhaps less showy than some of its rivals. There are, according to Wacht, roughly 80 offices around the country with some 1,750 employees — and these offices all inform each other what they’re up to and help one another on deals. “One of the nice things about Lee is a lot of the people are entrepreneurial people and pass the hat around” for investments, Wacht explained.

Wacht works out of the firm’s New York office, which has a headcount of about 50 people, but that doesn’t limit it geographically. “We’ve invested in a retail portfolio in Connecticut,” said Wacht. “We’ve done industrial deals around the country. We invested in an office property in Columbus, Ohio.”

In the last few years, the office has been growing its agency practice, picking up Todd Korren from Avison Young in April 2024 to be part of the four-person executive team, and looking to hire more.

And, even if Wacht wasn’t atop his perch at Lee & Associates, there’s a pretty good case for bestowing real estate honors on him given his involvement in the development of Casa Belongó  in East Harlem.

Casa Belongó, for those who don’t know, is the music and arts center with a 280-seat theater and jazz club attached to a 19-story affordable housing project at Park Avenue and East 118th Street designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. From his spot on the board of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, which Wacht has been involved in for some 18 years (he doesn’t play an instrument but has loved the music since he was a college DJ), Wacht helped usher the project through many of its development and financing hurdles.

“It was a very complicated deal and there were a lot of issues to get resolved,” he said. “But when the deal got closed I was a little sad to stop.” —Max Gross