2016 Year in Review: Hall Oster, Cushman & Wakefield

Name & Title:  Hall Oster, Senior Managing Director Company Name:  Cushman & Wakefield What was your most notable project, deal, transaction or professional achievement in 2016? The sale of the St. Luke’s portfolio which was a package of 5 original hospital buildings comprised of 205,000 square feet overlooking Morningside Park. The buildings represent approximately half of a city block and were completely intertwined with the remainder of the hospital's campus. As such, the buildings needed to be physically separated. Additionally they shared a single zoning and tax lot which required a great deal of coordination to convert to residential use. Overall it was a very complicated and involved negotiation that transcended the normal elements of a sale in Manhattan. What project, transaction, market trend or product had the greatest impact on your industry this year? The greatest market trends on the multifamily side was a dearth of supply that continued to drive pricing despite a significant reduction in the number of sales and total sales volume relative to 2015. How will you be supercharging your productivity in 2017?  Remain organized, focused and most importantly proactive rather than reactive. What emerging trends will drive investment and development in 2017?  On the investment side, I expect there to be a larger appetite from passive and foreign investors for turn-key, decontrolled, multi-family product especially in the market below $25 million. Additionally, I expect value-add investors will be shifting their focus to assets with a large decontrolled component that is mis-priced and ideal for a mark to market play. Developers should be keeping an eye on the supply pipeline and beginning to figure out how they can secure new opportunities for delivery in 2019 to 2021 as there will be little to no competition based on current delivery schedules.