Decade Answers: Brian Waterman

Brian Waterman is an executive vice president/principal at Newmark Knight Frank, New York, N.Y. What was one of your corporate or career highlights of the decade? My most memorable career experience of the decade 2000-2009 has to viewed from two different perspective's. On the tenant representation side it has to be the transaction where we represented North Shore/LIJ in the leasing of close to 500,000 s/f at 1111 Marcus Ave. in Lake Success for it's Center for Advanced Medicine. It was a extremely complex transaction that granted North Shore rights to buy its own space. It wasn't about the deal as much as it was about creating something that also benefited the community. From a landlord representative perspective it had to be working with Malkin Properties to reposition various buildings in their New York portfolio. The complex challenges to reposition these buildings and work required to meet these challenges made the end result even sweeter when we collectively brought these buildings to what they are today, first class assets. What are your predictions for commercial real estate in the new decade? I don't know if I can look into a crystal ball and predict a major event but I do know that we are lot more optimistic about the future than we were 12 months ago. New York real estate has been here long before I got into the business and will be here for long after I am gone. It keeps on evolving and everyday I come to work there is something new to learn and experience. New York has been through major events before. We all have, and I hope we all will continue to learn from those experiences.