Daniel Moore.
Daniel Moore
President and CEO at Rockefeller Group
How much longer can this go on?
Not so long that we won’t outlast it. Like every pandemic in the history of the world, this one will end — and we’re seeing signs of improvement daily. Sting said it best: “It may seem a million miles away, but it gets a little closer every day.”
What does normal look like?
For the real estate industry, I’d say that we are well on the way. At our Class A office buildings in Midtown, we’ve seen tenant populations increase dramatically with the start of the school year and traffic at our street-level retail (primarily restaurants) close to pre-pandemic levels Tuesday through Thursday. At our residential projects, it feels more like 2019 than 2020 given the strong weekly traffic numbers we’re seeing. Condo buyers are back and signing contracts, which is a clear vote of confidence in the city and its future. And I saw a fully masked mariachi band on the subway last week, which felt like another step back to normal.
The real next normal will be when we’re regularly seeing north of 75 percent of our office populations on-site (reflecting more flexible work schedules) and when our restaurant tenants are busy on the weekends with pre- and post-theater crowds and tourists back in sizable numbers.
If you could go back in time to March of 2020, what’s the first thing you would do?
When I look back at March of 2020 and the first weeks of the pandemic, I can’t help but feel gratitude and pride in Rockefeller Group, particularly for the essential workers, like our property management teams, engineering staff and security personnel, who continued to report to work every day under exceptional circumstances.
From a business perspective, I wouldn’t change much at all. Between 2016 and 2019, we took a number of actions, like adding great new talent, completing the repositioning of 1271 Avenue of the Americas, disposing of legacy assets, selling non-core businesses and investing in technology (believe it or not, we had Zoom rooms in December of 2019) that were not just the right decisions at that time, but that also positioned us well for the future.
While we’ve responded to the challenges of the last 18-plus months with resilience, creativity and perseverance, we’ve also been able to meaningfully grow, effectively tripling our national development pipeline over the past two years.
What do you do now that you never did before 2020?
Monthly live CEO video updates with the company. Regular Zoom calls with my three best friends from high school.
What’s the biggest threat to the return to normal?
Fear and poor risk assessments.
Is now the time to buy or sell?
Selling newly developed Class A industrial has been a bright spot for us over the last year. We’ve also been buying great development sites in submarkets where we have conviction and a long-term view, like Midtown Atlanta, the CBD of Washington, D.C., and Denver. We’re also pursuing opportunities to develop new, modern industrial product in Long Island.
Suddenly, there’s a big change to the New York state constitution and you’re now named the 58th governor of the Empire State — what do you do about the eviction moratorium?
Get rent relief dollars that have already been authorized to the people who need it most.
Lightning round
Eric Adams or Curtis Sliwa?
Adams.
Last time you got on an airplane, what was your destination?
September 2021 to visit our son at Notre Dame.
What vax did you get?
Pfizer/BioNTech and the flu shot.
Your go-to takeout?
Little Thai Kitchen.
Where does your patience wear thinnest — evictions or anti-vaxxers?
Anyone who outsources their brain to cable news or social media.
