By Holly Dutton
GOTHAM WEST
Modular construction and new design concepts were two of the hot topics at the âWomen Who Designâ panel at the Real Estate Weekly Womenâs Forum today (Wednesday).
Belinda Schwartz, a partner at Herrick, Feinstein, LLP, moderateed the panel comprised of women involved in various aspects of design and constuction.
Panelists Melissa Roman Burch, senior vice president of Forest City Ratner Companies, Anita Konfederak, VP/senior project manager at Merritt Engineering, Highlyann Krasnow, a partner with MNS, Jill Lerner, a partner with Kohn Pederson Fox Association and president of AIANY, Dana Panazarino, managing director at VVA Project Managers & Consultants and Melissa Pianko, executive vice president of development, the Gotham Organization, agreed the real estate development market has cleared a hurdle.
âIt seems weâve finished with the really horrible bad times,â said Schwartz of the real estate industry. âOne thing Iâm really interested in is new design concepts.â
Resiliency after Hurricane Sandy and what that means for the future in terms of development was another item on the agenda.
âThere appears to be much more liquidity in the market for major gut rehab projects,â said Schwartz.
BELINDA SCHWARTZ
âIt appears lenders are more sensitive to things like environmental issues, amenities, resiliency, and they understand thatâs going to become part of the cost of doing a project.â
Predicting emerging neighborhood hotspots, especially in the outer boroughs, was another topic for discussion.
âIt used to be location, location, location â now thereâs a lot more locations. Itâs not just Manhattan-centric any more, even though itâs everyoneâs dream, there are loads of other locations out there that are exciting,â said Schwartz, citing Long Island City as being especially attractive to developers due to the availability of land and convenient public transit.
Modular design, which has been in the news with the Atlantic Yards project, was discussed by Forest City Ratnerâs Burch.
âIâm excited to talk about what weâve done over the past two years with modular construction,â said Burch. âWe are on the ground with B2, the first residential building at Atlantic Yards.â
The 32-story building will be the tallest building ever constructed using modular technology. âItâs a project a lot of people are going to be watching,â said Burch. âItâs a way to re-think how we do construction.â
MICHELLE BURCH
Burch discussed the âintensiveâ prototyping phase Forest City Ratner has been undergoing, which involves staging modules at a Brooklyn Navy Yard site before trucking them to the Atlantic Yards site and stacking them with a crane.
âIt really is taking pre-fabrication to the extreme,â she said.
Pianko, with the Gotham Organization, discussed Gotham West, a new project the company is bringing online in the next couple of months.
The LEED project will encompass nearly an entire city block in midtown west, and will have 1,238 rental units in four separate buildings when completed, with an additional 17,000 s/f of retail.
