Investor Ben Ashkenazy in conversation with J. Crew, Apple icon Mickey Drexler

Investor Ben Ashkenazy has a history of sparking debate. 

Now, he’ll be on stage for an exclusive discussion with Mickey Drexler, a retail pioneer who brought Gap around the country and current chairman of fashion start-up Alex Mill, at The Real Deal NYC Real Estate Forum.

Five years ago, people said retail was dead. Today, investors have spent billions buying retail properties, renovating and improving existing places, and building spectacular new projects on Fifth Avenue and beyond. 

Vornado’s Steve Roth even told investors that “the retail apocalypse is passing” in their last earnings call, and said that he is “convinced that rents are going to rise.” 

But not everyone survived the storm. 

And as retail revitalizes, it will look dramatically different than it has in the past. 

At The Real Deal Real Estate Forum, TRD is bringing together major investor Ashkenazy alongside retailer genius Drexler – who shepherded Apple through the opening of its first retail branches – to give industry insiders unprecedented insights into the future of this market as it rises from the ashes.

This conversation will be a rare opportunity to hear firsthand from press-shy Ashkenazy, owner of some of the most iconic retail from coast to coast, as he shares his thoughts about luxury and major retail’s comeback in NYC. 

Drexler meanwhile was a driving force behind both Gap’s and J. Crew’s meteoric rises in the 1990s and aughts, as well as the brain behind Apple’s retail store concept. He will offer his perspective on what defines a successful retail brand, and what the best days of NYC retail can teach us about new opportunities ahead.

Sign up today for The Real Deal NYC Real Estate Forum on May 8 at the Metropolitan Pavilion to get access to this discussion and all panel sessions, along with the Expo Floor and networking with 3,000 NYC professionals.