Had Equity Residential’s Samuel Zell known that Lehman Brothers would accept a fixed price for Archstone’s sprawling apartment building portfolio, he would have bought the whole company outright, he told participants yesterday at a real estate investment trust symposium hosted by New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate.

“The fixed price removes a lot of uncertainty from the deal,” said Zell, looking rakish in a grey blazer and jeans, amidst a suit-clad crowd at the Pierre, a swank Central Park-facing hotel at 2 East 61st Street.  [more]

Big data — the collection of large and complex data sets — can transform building construction and management, investment, leasing and even government policy, according to scholars and experts on sustainable real estate. [more]

Titans of real estate — from Related Chairman Stephen Ross to Vornado Realty’s head of capital markets Wendy Silverstein to Larry Silverstein, of World Trade Center fame — gathered yesterday at the 45th annual NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s Capital Markets Conference. Up for discussion: New York after Sandy, BGC Partners’ new real estate derivatives platform and whether or not Vornado is really just a private equity firm disguised as a real estate investment trust.

Among the many real estate stars opining on the state of capital markets were Scott Rechler of RXR Realty; Marc Holliday, CEO of SL Green; and William Rudin of Rudin Management…. [more]

Hurricane Sandy may have had an immediate effect on New York City’s commercial real estate, but President Barack Obama’s second term and local and state tax policy will have much longer lasting impacts on the industry, real estate veterans said today at the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate’s Capital Markets Conference.

After Sandy, office stock in the city did not fare that badly, said SL Green CEO Marc Holliday, noting that of the 28 million square feet of space the real estate investment trust controls, only one building was damaged badly enough to warrant significant repairs. [more]

International interest in New York real estate has played a big part in the nascent housing recovery; it’s also filling classrooms at New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate. Registration for this fall’s noncredit classes began this week, with new courses ranging from green building to hotel investment on offer. [more]

Real estate investment trusts are better off focusing on a single expertise than they are growing to all-encompassing behemoths. That was the consensus among a whole host of industry experts speaking today at the annual New York University Schack Institute of Real Estate REIT Symposium held at the Pierre hotel. [more]

Former Schack Institute of Real Estate dean James Stuckey was accused of sexually harassing a New York University administrator, in a suit filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court by the woman, who claims her accusations also prevented her from nabbing a top-paying job at the school.

The New York Daily News reported that Stephanie Bonadio claimed in the suit that when she asked Stuckey about a pending promotion during a dinner, he tried to get her to perform a sexual act. [more]

James Stuckey resigned from his post as the dean of New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate earlier this month because of sexual harassment allegations, according to the New York Post.

At the time of his resignation, university spokespeople had said Stuckey quit for health reasons. But the Post said he had been pushed out when NYU officials confronted him with accusations that he sexually harassed women at the university…. [more]

James Stuckey, the divisional dean of the New York University Schack Institute of Real Estate resigned abruptly this past Friday, the school told The Real Deal, in a situation reminiscent of how he departed four years ago from a top job at the development firm Forest City Ratner Companies. At NYU, Stuckey left behind a mixed legacy in his two-year tenure, forcing through what some described as necessary changes to improve the school, but was criticized with operating with what they saw as an arrogant and biased management style.

Stuckey resigned last Friday “effective immediately,” said Paola Curcio-Kleinman, executive director of strategic marketing and communications for the School of Continuing and Professional studies, of which the Schack Institute is a part.

She said the school would likely make an announcement in the next few days about who would lead the division, but beyond that she would not comment. … [more]

Most of the newcomers that rushed into the New York City real estate market during the boom have all but disappeared, the Wall Street Journal reported, making banks nervous to lend to first-time developers.
The banks “have set the bar too high for small developers to participate this time in the market,” said veteran developer Adam Gordon. “The opportunities for a fresh face without a large balance sheet are extremely limited without funding, which is the oxygen for these projects.”
It has always been somewhat unusual for young people to fly solo on small independent projects, the Journal said, but it’s become almost impossible. “If they all define themselves linearly, as putting together an equity fund and building a boutique building…then you’ve created clones who only know how to think one way,” said James Stuckey, dean of NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, of his students. … [more]