Although developers Larry Silverstein and Harry Macklowe headlined the impressive list of speakers at Massey Knakal’s Commercial Real Estate Investment today, it was developer Sharif El-Gamal who jazzed up the audience at the second-floor auditorium in the McGraw-Hill Building in Midtown.

Speaking as part of a panel that included Brookfield Properties CEO Richard Clark, George Comfort & Sons CEO Peter Duncan and Himmel + Meringoff Properties’ managing partner Stephen Meningoff, El-Gamal talked about his company’s competitive advantages. [more]

Top row from left: Jeffrey Gural, Leslie Wohlman Himmel and Andrew Singer. Bottom row from left: Frank Freda, Leonard Boxer and David Brause

With the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual banquet set for Jan. 20, the board has unveiled a list of six individuals who will be honored for their “drive, dedication and knowledge,” said Steven Spinola, president of REBNY. The first honoree, Jeffrey Gural, chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, will receive the award for outstanding civic welfare, while Leslie Wohlman Himmel, a managing partner with Himmel + Meringoff Properties and the evening’s only female honoree, is slated to received an award for industry leadership. TRD [more]

Leonard Boxer

From the January issue: Attorney Len Boxer is a thinking man’s lawyer. And these days he’s finding ways to wring money for development in a capital-starved market. So it’s fitting that a likeness of Auguste Rodin’s “Thinker” adorns his 39th-floor Lower Manhattan aerie. Boxer is chairman of the 50-person real estate practice at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. His Maiden Lane office looks out on Brooklyn, where he grew up. In the 1970s, he formed a law firm with Robert Olnick, right before Olnick got involved with developing Starrett City. Since then, his deals have only grown, like Larry Silverstein’s $3.2 billion lease in summer 2001 of the World Trade Center. [more]

Dai Zhikang, chairman of Shanghai Zendai Investment Group

The young founder of a massive real estate development firm based in Shanghai, China, is visiting New York City this week with a hope to build a mixed-use project here sometime within the next 10 years. While Dai Zhikang, chairman of Shanghai Zendai Investment Group, has not bought any property and has no project plans, he already has set himself apart from most Chinese real estate executives touring the city these days: he wants to build his own project, not just invest in something. “I have no interest to buy [exclusively as an investor]. I just want to develop,” he said in an interview yesterday in a representative’s office overlooking Union Square. Dai was ranked 127th richest person in China with a net worth of $410 million, according to a Forbes ranking of the wealthiest 400 Chinese in 2008. [more]