A Minnesota-based fitness center company that has made a splash on Westchester”™s evolving Platinum Mile office park corridor and a fast-moving developer in the county”™s rental apartments market were among honorees last week at the annual awards dinner of the Building Owners and Managers Association of Westchester County.
The BOMA chapter presented its Hall of Honor Award to Life Time Fitness Inc., which in early 2014 opened a 206,000-square-foot facility on the site of the former Gannett newspaper plant in Harrison.
Jeff Melby, Life Time”™s senior vice president of development and construction, noted the BOMA award was the first recognition the company has received as a building manager and owner, although it owns 115 buildings in 26 states.
David Mann, a developer of modular apartments and president and owner of Lighthouse Enterprises LLC, also received BOMA”™s Hall of Honor Award.
Mann said his company has invested $38 million in six multifamily apartment developments in Westchester since its launch in 2011. He has completed five projects totaling 142 rental units in White Plains and recently broke ground on a 50-unit apartment building on North Pearl Street in downtown Port Chester.
Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino was presented the BOMA President”™s Award, recognizing his “significant and positive long-term contribution to the social and economic well-being of the community and its residents.”
“You are the job creators in this county,” Astorino told his audience of real estate brokers and industry professionals at the Tappan Hill Mansion in Tarrytown. “You are the ones that make this county run.” The second-term county executive urged brokers and landlords to phone him to help close deals with companies looking to operate in the county.
Entertaining BOMA audiences for the last time after a decade of laugh-inciting annual appearances as the dinner”™s master of ceremonies, Colliers International broker Michael Siegel presented Best of BOMA awards in four categories. Winners were:
Creative Real Estate Deal of the Year: 520 White Plains Road. The award recognized the 180,000-square-foot building”™s leasing team of Clark Briffel, at SL Green Realty Corp., and CBRE”™s Brian Carcaterra, Mike McCall and Morgan Collins, for raising the property”™s leasing rate from 63 percent in 2013 to 98 percent currently.
Engineer of the Year: Robert Melly, of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., a building engineer for 44 years, including nearly 30 years at the Gateway Building at 1 N. Lexington Ave. in White Plains.
Signature Building Team of the Year: Susan Curtis, Janet Carrozza and Wendy Neiman of RXR Realty. Led by Curtis as senior property manger, the RXR team manages a portfolio of 1.5 million square feet of office building space and 85 acres of land in Westchester and Connecticut.
Tenant Fit Out: Jackson Lewis LLC, for the law firm”™s turnkey design and construction build-out in 2014 when it relocated to a nearly 45,000-square-foot office at 44 S. Broadway.
