Several real estate and hotel experts came together yesterday evening at Citibank at 399 Park Avenue to discuss the roles of retail and hospitality in New York City’s revitalization at a panel discussion organized by the New York area chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Women’s Network.

Barbara Champoux, immediate past president of the CREW chapter and a partner at Crowell & Moring, moderated the panel that included Riyaz Akhtar, executive vice president of development of Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Retail Group, Andrew Jackson, project manager of the Hudson Companies and Amelia Lim, executive vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. — Miranda Neubauer [more]

Mary Ann Tighe, CEO at CB Richard Ellis

Women are increasingly finding professional opportunity in commercial real estate, according to a study commissioned by Commercial Real Estate Women and administered by the Cornell University program for real estate, Real Town reported.

There was a 7 percent increase in the number of women entering professions related to commercial real estate between 2005 and 2010, the report shows. Overall, more women in commercial real estate, about 11 percent in 2010, are earning between $100,000 and $250,000 per year. That’s a jump from only 8 percent in that bracket in 2005. In 2010, 31 percent of men were receiving that degree of compensation, down from 34 percent in 2005.
The number of women reporting less that $75,000 in compensation dropped from three times the number of men, to only twice the number. [more]

From the December issue: When the economy sours, one of the few sectors to profit is usually
postgraduate education. Laid-off employees, or simply scared ones,
historically have flocked to school to beef up their résumés in the
hopes of better positioning themselves in the job market. But for some real estate professionals, this recession is different.
At New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate Continuing
Education Program, which offers over 500 classes each year, enrollment
dropped 10 to 15 percent between fall 2008 and fall 2009. The Real Estate Board of New York has also seen a 5 to 8 percent
decline in their for-credit continuing education program participants,
who typically register in order to maintain their licenses.
[more]