Real estate, hotel experts tout revitalization of city at CREW event

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.

The panel also explored the short- and long-term
prospects for retail and commercial real estate in New York City, the
importance of hotels and retail in revitalizing the city’s
neighborhoods and retail and hospitality’s contribution to the city.
“Shopping is the number one activity for tourists in New York and
around the world,” Consolo said in a statement. “All visitors to New
York plan on visiting not only traditional retail neighborhoods along
Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue and Soho,” Consolo added, but also
several emerging neighborhoods boasting a more diverse range of retail.
“And now many brands are taking spaces within hotels, making shopping
even more convenient!” — Miranda Neubauer