Tom Bisacquino, NAIOP national president, spoke Monday, Jan. 22 during NAIOP New Jersey’s annual meeting and commercial real estate outlook event. — Photo by Gary Gellman, Gellman Images/Courtesy: NAIOP New Jersey
By Joshua Burd
Jon F. Hanson of The Hampshire Cos. will be among the top honorees this spring at NAIOP New Jersey’s annual awards gala, headlining a list of influencers and key industry players.
The commercial real estate association announced Monday that Hanson, Hampshire’s founder and chairman, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the May 10 event. He will be honored alongside Mack-Cali Realty Corp. CEO Michael DeMarco and Jeff Milanaik, regional partner with Bridge Development Partners, who are both receiving NAIOP’s Impact Award.
In addition, Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chairman Stan Danzig will be recognized with the Industry Service Award, while Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac will receive the Caren S. Franzini Public Partner Award.
“We’re thrilled with this list,” Dave Gibbons, NAIOP’s New Jersey chapter president and CEO of Elberon Development Group, said of this year’s honorees.
NAIOP revealed the slate during its annual meeting and commercial real estate outlook event, which drew hundreds to the Hilton Short Hills. In addition to touting the annual gala, the organization installed its newest officers and trustees, while highlighting the key state and federal policy issues facing commercial real estate.
Tax reform was top of mind for many at the conference. Tom Bisacquino, NAIOP national president, said the organization had been working for nearly a decade to protect provisions such as the 1031 like-kind exchange, the treatment of carried interest and the deductibility of business interest.
And most recently, as policymakers searched for ways to ease the burden on the middle class and corporate America, “a lot of what we care about was on the chopping block,” Bisacquino said. Yet he noted that those provisions turned out to be relatively unscathed by the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, so “all in all … there clearly is a lot of positive.”
He also cited the cut to the corporate tax rate and other benefits to businesses.
“The old adage in our industry is what? A landlord cannot do better than his or her tenant,” Bisacquino said. “So if it’s good for corporate America, if we believe that corporate America will expand and prosper under this bill, it should have a very positive effect on the demand for our space.”
That new tax law should counteract the effects of an anticipated slowdown in the market, he said, given that the current recovery is now among the longest in U.S. history.
Infrastructure continues to a top policy focus at the national level, he said, as it is for NAIOP’s New Jersey chapter. And despite President Trump’s talk of a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure spending plan, Bisacquino said there is still much work to be done in driving the point home to the administration and lawmakers.
“We are working this probably harder than we’re going to be working anything going forward,” he said, while outlining other areas of focus, such as environmental energy efficiency rules and capital credit availability.
