BOMA/NY Pinnacle Awards honor owners and managers across New York City - February 4

The temperatures may have dropped below freezing, but spirits were high on the evening of February 4, as 500 real estate professionals crowded into Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers to see who would win the most coveted award in the ownership/management world of real estate - The BOMA/NY Pinnacle Award. As summed up by BOMA/NY president Angelo Grima, "The Pinnacle is the blueprint for success - follow the Pinnacle process and you'll enhance your management skills. The net gain is a better-managed, more competitive asset, and when you make the most out of your asset, your asset makes the most out of its bottom line." Fourteen Pinnacles were given out in all: nine in building categories; two to managers in two different years of experience categories; one to the outstanding local member of the year; and two awards for public contribution - the Henry J. Muller Achievement Award: Recognizing Vision for New York, and the Civic Betterment Award, which focuses on social/charitable involvement. With BOMA/NY's officers by her side, BOMA/NY executive director Roberta McGowan, CAE, was also recognized for her dedicated service, or as described by president Grima, for "being the constant" at BOMA/NY for the past 20 years. Widely acknowledged as the most difficult award to win in the operational realm, the Pinnacle evaluates building competitors on 82 points of management acumen. Judging includes a building inspection; building team interview and a comprehensive written submission detailing management accomplishments and innovations in tenant relations; community impact; building team training and three technical areas: energy management, environmental and regulatory compliance and emergency preparedness and security standards. Winners were announced in the Oscar-style ceremony that has become the hallmark of this special night, and their winning attributes are featured here in order of appearance.  The 2008-2009 BOMA/NY Pinnacle Award winners are: Outstanding Local Member of the Year: James Kleeman, RPA, Related Management For the lion's share of his 30 years in the field, James Kleeman, RPA, has given his expertise to two New York icons - the World Trade Center, and Time Warner Center, which he helped open in 2003, and now heads as general manager. In 2007, he steered TWC to a Pinnacle win and one year later, a BOMA International TOBY win, bringing home New York's first-ever TOBY award for an operating office building over 1 million s/f.  A great believer in sharing information to further the industry he loves, Kleeman was fundamental to developing the BOMA International Accredited Building Program by making Time Warner Center available as a model, and by helping to shape program criteria. Historical Building: 48 Wall Street Owner: 48 Wall, LLC Management Firm: Swig Equities, LLC Property Manager: Phil Procopio This 34-story landmark tower is the third Bank of New York headquarters to occupy the site at 48 Wall Street, where the bank has prospered since its founding in 1797 as America's first bank. Today, it stands as one of New York's leading examples of Colonial Revival architecture, complete with a Corinthian temple at its crown.  Purchased by Swig Equities in 1998, this treasure of the banking world was treated to a $60 million, historically-sensitive renovation that preserved its magnificent architectural details, while transforming it into a class A building with all the requisite technology and luxury services needed for tenants of the 21st Century. Government Building:  Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House (One Bowling Green) Owner/Management Firm: U.S. General Services Administration Property Manager: Om Tanjea A Beaux Arts temple of American commerce commissioned in 1899 for the U.S. Customs Service, the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House served this nation as one of its central commercial hubs for six decades. In 1970, its future came into doubt when the Customs Service moved to the World Trade Center, but preservationists, civic leaders and historians banded together to restore and revive this majestic structure. While it is known for its cultural contributions - a striking rotunda, WPA-commissioned art and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian - it has achieved 21st Century success with an Energy Star ranking. And its new energy-efficient exterior lighting makes it a modern beacon for New York's historic harbor region. New Construction: 555 West 18th Street (IAC Building) Owner: IAC /InterActiveCorp Management Firm: Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc. Property Manager: Thomas Panissidi Frank Gehry's first Manhattan design at 555 West 18th St. defies description even as it defies gravity, with its curved facade and interior structure set at unusual angles. It is Gehry's first all-glass building and like no other in the world, with a glass façade, cold-warped on site to emulate billowing sails. Its dream-like exterior is often likened to sugar frosting; in fact, it is thousands of white, baked-on ceramic dot patterns that reflect light and reduce glare, in a case of white being green. Civic Betterment: Safe Horizon Now at work across New York, on billboards and bus stations, is Safe Horizon's powerful new ad campaign to stop the plague of domestic violence that affects 10 million children and families every year in our country. In New York, Safe Horizon reaches out with a helping hand to those who have only known a hand raised in anger, helping victims move from crisis to confidence. Locally, its annual programs provide 400 violence prevention workshops, make 15,000 contacts with homeless and street-involved youth, distribute 35,000 meals and provide compassionate services to more than 26,000 children. Earth Award: 7 World Trade Center Owner/Management Firm: Silverstein Properties, Inc. Property Manager: James Halpin To the public, it personified New York's rising from the ashes of 9/11, a sleek new symbol of hope, captured in steel and glass. For many, that was enough. But that was not enough for the developer, Silverstein Properties, who found more than a silver lining in the rebuilding of this tower - it found gold. 7 World Trade became New York's first Gold-LEED certified building, and has brought light and air back to its corner of downtown and opened up vistas that had been sealed off for many years. It harvests rainwater for cooling and irrigating landscaping, and uses steam-to-electricity turbine generators, among other innovations, including structural stability and life safety features exceeding code.  The Henry J. Muller Achievement Award (Recognizing Vision for New York): PlaNYC2030 On Earth Day 2007, New York City's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, announced the most ambitious greening program in America - PlaNYC2030 - and began a wide-ranging conversation with New Yorkers to determine what they saw as the future of their land, water, air, transportation and energy use. Thousands participated and many of their suggestions were incorporated into the plan, which is now underway on multiple fronts. BOMA/NY has featured PlaNYC2030 in its seminars and provided feedback to this masterplan, unlike any in the City's history. BOMA/NY salutes the Plan's critical thinking, determination and above all, its unparalleled vision  to make the greatest city in the world, the greenest. Manager of the Year (3-10 Years' Experience): Juan Machado, Property Manager, 452 Fifth Avenue, Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc. A graduate architect with an MS From Columbia University in Real Estate Development, Juan Machado came to property management via the public sector, and today he is the steady hand at the helm of HSBC's 4-building complex at 452 Fifth Ave. He has distinguished himself by juggling a wide variety of responsibilities at the four facilities, which span seven decades in age and serve as the bank's N.Y. headquarters. To be continued in the April 14 ODM edition of The New York Real Estate Journal.