Jennifer Schwartzman has worked her way up the ranks at Newmark Knight Frank, where she currently serves as director of the firm’s Capital Markets Group, overseeing accounts for Verizon, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hudson Yards Development Corp. “As the seller, you want to know the market response before you actually go to the market, and you don’t want to have to sign yourself up to the developer before you do that,” the Connecticut native told the Observer, explaining Newmark’s behind-the-scenes work on Hudson Yards. “It really was trying to figure out what type of financing would be of interest to developers, what kind of staging.” Schwartzman has inked dozens of deals for Verizon, most recently a $25 million transaction for 126,000 square feet at 210 West 18th Street that closed in December. She stressed that deals like those are often difficult, taking years to complete, after fostering a long-term relationship with her clients. “She wants to save the world,” Jimmy Kuhn, president of Newmark, said. [NYO]

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The city’s real estate industry is lobbying for federal stimulus money for the cash-strapped No. 7 subway extension, calling it a shovel-ready project that will improve the quality of life for future residents of Hudson Yards. The planned extension is currently slated to create just one new subway station at West 34th Street and 11th Avenue by 2013, allowing the train to zip by another proposed stop at West 41st Street and 10th Avenue, the Post’s Lois Weiss reported. It would cost an estimated $500 million to create the 41st Street stop — right above a planned Related Companies apartment tower — and another $300 million to make sure the station is up to snuff in terms of safety. Since funding isn’t available, the feds “could bid it right out” as a stimulus project, said Mary Anne Tighe, chair of the Real Estate Board of New York. Ann Weisbrod, president of the Hudson Yards Development Corp., said that if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority delays construction of a 41st Street station until after Related builds its tower, it will ultimately cost significantly more. [Post]