Page 33 - Vol.5 No. 7 July 2021

EVENT COVERAGE
REALESTATENJTM 31
INDUSTRY LEADERS REUNITE AT FIRST NAIOP EVENT POST-PANDEMIC
By Joshua Burd
Commercial real estate leaders gathered last month in Holmdel, where NAIOP New Jersey honored several companies as the industry took a key step in moving beyond the pandemic.
With a registered crowd of more than 200, the association welcomed members on June 17 to the sprawling Bell Works campus for a special edition of its annual President’s Awards Reception. The event marked the organization’s first large in-person gathering since before the COVID-19 crisis, providing a chance for owners and service providers to reconnect after more than a year.
“People were itching to get out,” NAIOP New Jersey CEO Michael McGuinness said, noting that
his team had polled members throughout the winter and early spring about their comfort level with such an event. The organization decided around late January to move forward with the program, he said, as it monitored the state’s rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“We were constantly talking to people,” McGuinness said, later adding: “We figured it would be choppy for a couple of months, but we did figure that by June, we’d be in a good place.”
Typically held in the fall, the President’s Awards event is among NAIOP New Jersey’s largest in terms of crowd size, but was canceled
last year as the chapter shuffled
its schedule and pivoted to virtual programming. The June 17 event honored several key companies
and organizations — Alfred Sanzari Enterprises, CBRE, Elberon Development Group, Kushner Real Estate Group, Langan Engineering
& Environmental Services, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rutgers University and Sills Cummis & Gross PC — thanks in part to their contributions to the commercial real estate industry association.
The chapter also inducted James Hughes, the renowned economist and dean emeritus at Rutgers’
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, into its hall of fame.
McGuinness noted that Bell Works, owned by Somerset Development, was an ideal choice for hosting
the chapter’s first in-person event coming out of the pandemic. The 2 million-square-foot building, with its vast atrium and outdoor spaces, provided a setting that would
help attendees feel at ease, while Somerset President Ralph Zucker is a longtime NAIOP member who was able to provide the association with much-needed flexibility.
The chapter expects to continue
its transition to in-person events, McGuinness said, starting with its Regulatory, Legislative & Legal Update on July 14 at the Carpenters Apprentice Training Center in Edison. That will continue with high- profile events in the fall, including its 34th annual commercial real estate awards gala in October.
To that end, the association has announced seven finalists for its coveted Deal of the Year honors, with plans to unveil the winners at the Oct. 7 gala. The finalists include:
INDUSTRIAL:
NAIOP New Jersey held its annual President’s Awards Reception on June 17 at Bell Works in Holmdel
at Hamilton in Mercer County, involving Cushman & Wakefield, Metrix Real Estate Services
LLC and Penwood Real Estate Investment Management
OFFICE:
• Eisai Inc.’s headquarters lease
at Prism Capital Partner’s ON3 campus in Nutley, involving Prism Capital Partners, Eisai Inc., Savills
and Cushman & Wakefield
• Lincoln Equities Group and HIG Realty Partners’ purchase of a Bristol-Myers Squibb campus
in Hopewell, involving Lincoln Equities and JLL
• Park South at Morris County in Florham Park, involving CBRE, KBS Realty Advisors and Opal Holdings RE
Pointe Grande Shopping Center, Elizabeth, NJ Completed 2018. Cured Food Desert, Mitigated Environmental Condition, Added 100+ new jobs.
Summit Opera House, Summit, NJ
Currently under Redevelopment, adding 14 new Residential Units.
SERVICES:
Asset & Property Management, Advisory Services &
Leasing & Fiduciary Services
SERVICING:
Multifamily & Offices
Retail Industrial Development
1051 Bloomfield Avenue | P.O. Box 1276 | Clifton, NJ 07012 973 591-5222 | jacobs-enterprises.com
“Celebrating over 30 years of solving the industry’s most complicated problems”
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FreezPak Logistics Center in Elizabeth and Newark, involving Elberon Development Group,
The Fidelco Group, FreezPak, JLL, Langan Engineering and Environmental Services, Ware Malcomb, Chiesa Shahinian & Giantomasi PC, Orloff Lowenbach Stifelman & Siegel PA and Preferred Industrial Properties
UPS’ lease at Lincoln Logistics Bayonne in Bayonne, involving Lincoln Equities Group and Cushman & Wakefield
Piscataway Logistics Center
in Piscataway, involving Transwestern Development Co., Avison Young, ARCO Design-Build Contractors, Dynamic Engineering, Bob Smith & Associates, General Plumbing Supply and The Blau & Berg Co.
Redevelopment of the Shoppes
Photo by Gellman Images/Courtesy: NAIOP New Jersey