Articles Posted in Real Estate

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“In” and “out” of New York City that is. Roosevelt Island, in particular. Stanford withdrew its proposal to build a campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island and a week later, the City agreed to provide 10 acres to Cornell plus $100 million in infrastructure improvements; Cornell will build a $2 Billion campus on that property. You can read Mayor Bloomberg’s quotes about it on Mayor Bloomberg’s company’s website here. (Surely there’s an antitrust violation somewhere in there.)

New Yorkers hope that the project will keep high tech software from fleeing to the suburbs. Bloomberg (the site — not the mayor) quotes the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation as saying, “Software and applications need the kind of dense expertise that cities are full of.” If Pinsky is right, maybe Roosevelt Island will be the next Silicon Valley.

Cornell hired Skidmore, Owings & Merrell to design the project and it’s estimated that it will generate 20,000 construction jobs. It’s a bit early to say who the lucky 20,000 workers will be — or who their employer will be. Stay tuned.

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A funny thing happened at a recent ENRNewYork infrastructure conference titled Where’s the Money? — they found some. During a panel discussion concerning infrastructure financing, both Robert Dove, Managing Director, The Carlyle Group and Christophe Petit, President, Star America Infrastructure Partners, told the large audience that they had “money to spend” on infrastructure projects. Indeed, both men suggested that they were eager to find an infrastructure project in which to invest.

Interestingly, both men were looking for very different project profiles. Mr. Dove stated a desire to invest in brown field projects only, whereas Mr. Petit wants green field projects. Given the amount of money these two men represent, there is a very attractive opportunity for the promoter of the right project.

In light of this and the money Presidents Obama and Clinton have pledged to raise for infrastructure projects (see Michael McNamara’s 11/5/11 entry), perhaps some should be saying Show me the Project!!.