The Fried Frank holiday party is a lot like attending the after-party of a year-long awards show, where the best players in the game congratulate one another for brokering the year’s biggest real estate deals.
In 2007, which started off with a blockbuster first half and then tamped down after the credit crunch, the drinks flowed because everybody needed one. The hugs were a little tighter because the guests there realized how grateful they were to be in New York, which has become something of an automated teller machine for the international investment crowd.
The big names were there in force, from Paul Ingrassia, managing director at Citigroup Global Markets, to Kent Swig, the owner of Terra Holdings and president of Swig Equities.
The event has been such a gathering place for New York’s real estate establishment that some developers flew in for the party. Vince Graham, founder of the I’On Group in Mount Pleasant, S.C., attended as part of an overnight business trip to New York.
Official estimates had the crowd at just under 1,000, and Fried Frank seemed to have spared little expense. The buffet table included enough tuna tartar, veal ravioli, sushi and seafood to feed an arena, and two full bars flowed with an assortment of fine wine, beer and cocktails.
And while the commercial market has significantly slowed and brokers are feeling a tightening in certain parts of the market, the crowd at the Fried Frank party remained upbeat about 2008, with most of the guests predicting that the city will withstand whatever comes its way in the next few months.
Louis Somoza, senior vice president of Rudin Management, caught up with a bunch of friends from the real estate scene, including John Maher, executive managing director at CB Richard Ellis.
The two men share several decades of experience on the local real estate scene.
“Most people are pretty optimistic,” said Somoza.
“For the most part, we stayed on the sidelines in 2007,” said Jonathan Lemle, an associate at Scott-Lawrence, a Manhattan-based real estate development firm that is
raising funds for the new year. “We’re going to want to do enough due diligence to make sure each deal is the right thing to do.”
In a room full of industry heavyweights, the vibe felt a little bit like the release party for “Glengarry Glen Ross,” though there was diversity in gender, age and race. And the new generation of lawyers, brokers and developers added a bit of flair.
Yerelyn Cortez of Pace Advertising brought a sense of style to the festivities, in a Calvin Klein navy blue satin jacket over a white Tadashi top, accented with a David Yurman bracelet and blue Swarovski crystal ring.
Cortez spent much of the evening huddled with Corcoran associate broker Mary Venezia and Iris Rossano, director at Eastern Consolidated.
Local executives said the Fried Frank party was the best place for them to make up for lost time.
“It was good to see a lot of the people we’ve been working with over the years,” said Scott Ellard, a principal at Eastern Consolidated. “You obviously see a lot of people that you know. Sometimes, you actually worked on a couple of deals while you were there.”
“The only mistake I made was I got there late and missed a few hundred people that got there earlier,” said James Orphanides, chairman at First American Title Insurance. “The Fried Frank real estate holiday party is a real estate event. It should be treated as one.”