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Future of SoHo Broadway Real Estate panel draws a full house to 4th Annual Meeting at Boxed
On June 19th, 2018, the SoHo Broadway community gathered for the SoHo Broadway Initiative’s 4th Annual Meeting. Generously hosted by Boxed at their headquarters at 28 Mercer Street, the meeting brought over one hundred attendees to celebrate the Initiative’s accomplishments, enjoy the evening’s panel discussion and elect new board members.
A packed room settled in for this year’s panel discussion, The Future of SoHo Broadway Real Estate, moderated by Mark Dicus. The panelists were a mix of important influencers along SoHo Broadway, including: Amy Abrams, Co-Founder of Artists & Fleas; Derrick Ades, Senior Vice President at CBRE; Jared Epstein, Vice President and Principal at Aurora Capital Associates; Andrew Kahn, the Executive Director of Retail Services at Cushman & Wakefield; and David Sadkin, Director of Real Estate at WeWork. The conversation was lively and touched on SoHo’s real estate ranging SoHo Broadway’s past, it’s current state, and ideas for the future. In response to a question on vacancies Jared Epstein responded that, “Having vacancies is like a black plague” re-enforcing his view that using pop ups while looking for a long term tenant is important to maintain vibrancy along Broadway. Amy Abrams, one of Aurora’s tenants at 568 Broadway, discussed how Artists & Fleas has taken advantage of the recent retail downturn to bring the their market-style model to SoHo Broadway.
On the office market side, Derrick Ades lamented the limited supply of office space in SoHo which forces him and his growing roster of TAMI clients to be creative in assembling blocks of large blocks of space for companies like Group 9. When asked about what is lacking along SoHo Broadway, Ades, along with others on the panel called for more food and beverage opportunities on Broadway while David Sadkin shared that members of the We Work community has been calling for more experience based retail near their locations.
Following the panel, the Initiative presented this year’s Cast Iron Partner Awards to four individuals who contributed their time, genuine interest and partnership to the SoHo Broadway community in a significant way. The 2018 Cast Iron Partner Award recipients are: Katy Rice, SoHo resident and founding SBI Board Member; Yuki Ohta, founder of The SoHo Broadway Memory Project; Samantha Hoar, Manager of Artists & Fleas SoHo; and Officer Sejdi Cobaj, NYPD 5th Precinct.
After announcing this year’s Cast Iron Partner awards, the formal business portion of the Annual Meeting began with reports for Committees and the election of new board members. The Initiative’s Zoning Resources Committee made a presentation and released draft copies of the SoHo Zoning Resources Guidebook. Congratulations to the Marc Ricks of Vornado and Jason Vacker Meringoff Properties (Class A1- Commercial Property Owners) on their election to the board and the re-election of Richard Benenson, John Pasquale, Margaret Baisley, Paul Farr, Emily Hellstrom and James Cavello.
Mark Dicus closed the meeting at a few minutes before 8pm.
Photos: Ethan Covey
