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On June 20th, residents, artists, representatives from office and retail businesses, property owners as well as our public sector friends came together at the SoHo Broadway Initiative’s Annual Meeting to celebrate the end of the Initiative’s 3rd year of operation. The Initiative’s 3rd Annual Meeting was generously hosted by Scholastic and was attended by over one hundred members of the SoHo Broadway community.
Brian Steinwurtzel, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Newmark Holdings and President of the Initiative, opened the meeting by retelling the popular Aesop’s fable, The Lion and the Mouse. In the fable, the Lion captures the Mouse and is amused when the Mouse asks the Lion to let the Mouse go because the Mouse would repay the favor. The Lion laughs at the thought of a tiny mouse ever helping it, but lets the Mouse go. Sure enough, later in the story, the Mouse comes to the Lion’s rescue when it finds the Lion caught in a net and the Mouse gnaws through the net to free the Lion. The moral of the story is that no matter whether you are big or small, a kindness is never wasted. The Initiative embodies the principles of this fable and believes that all members of the SoHo Broadway community, no matter if they are large, medium or small, should be good neighbors to one another, just like the Lion and the Mouse.
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer followed Mr. Steinwurtzel and said a few words to congratulate the Initiative on a successful year.
Yukie Ohta, founder of The SoHo Memory Project opened the Made it on Broadway Panel Discussion by introducing the panelists: Don Saladino, Founder of Drive, Harry Skopas, Director of Technology at The Mill, Margaret Baisley, Attorney at Law, Nicolas Petrou, Co-Founder of Broadway Market, Patrick McCormick, NYC General Manager at breather and Zigi Ben-Haim, Artist. The panel shared their thoughts about how they got to Broadway, what they make here and what their future looks like on SoHo’s Broadway.
Following the panel discussion, the Initiative presented Cast Iron Partner Awards to individuals who contributed to the SoHo Broadway community in a significant way. The Initiative thanked and congratulated the following individuals who received a 2017 Cast Iron Partner Award: Police Officer Rodney Rosado (NYPD-5th Precinct), Talal Alhammad from Boxed, James Cavello from Westwood Gallery and Bobby Canty from ACE/Clean Team.
After the Finance and Executive Director’s Report, there was an open question and answer period. Following the questions and answers, Paul Farr, the Initiative’s Secretary held votes to approve the minutes from last year’s meeting, hold board elections and amend the by laws. Congratulations to the following individuals who were elected to the Board of Directors: Margaret Baisley (Class A2-Residential Property Owner), Sharon Ermilio (Class C-Residential Tenant), Jeannette Rodriguez from Nike-SoHo (Class B-Commercial Tenant) and DJ Williams (Class B-Commercial Tenant) from Boxed.
Emily Hellstrom, Initiative Vice President thanked everyone for their hard work this past year, closed the meeting and invited everyone to stay for the reception.
Photos: Ethan Covey
