Garvin of CDC of LI enjoys changing the lives of children

During the last 10 years of your career, which professional accomplishment, honor or achievement was most meaningful to you and why? The ultimate outcome of the work I do that is most important to me is changing the lives of the families we house, particularly the children. Seeing children go to college, lift themselves out of poverty because they had a stable life makes me understand in a very profound way that home matters! The impact of building affordable housing is more than bricks and mortar. We are uplifting neighborhoods and families, which helps the wider community as well. Which project, deal or transaction was the 'game changer' in the advancement of your career during the last 10 years? Deploying $15 million in energy efficiency funds to improve over 3,000 housing units on Long Island in less than 2 years demonstrated that CDC could ramp up and work effectively with our multifamily owners to improve a significant portion of the rental housing stock. Doing this while also completing a 94 unit preservation rental housing project in Hempstead, as well as a new $10 million program called Reclaim Long Island Homes which involves buying REOs and returning them to productive use, showed what a non-profit is capable of accomplishing. How do you contribute to your company and / or the industry? As the only housing person appointed by governor Cuomo to serve on the Long Island Regional Council I actively worked to ensure that the voice of the industry was heard as we considered what were important economic drivers to include in the Island's five year Strategic Plan. Many real estate projects were included as "Transformative Projects" and capital funding was secured to leverage private dollars. Working across sectors in a collaborative way for the betterment of the Island's economy is very important to me and CDC. How are you using social media to promote yourself, your products and / or your firm? CDC of Long Island has a very dynamic website and Facebook page. We convert many visitors to clients. @cdclongisland is the corporation's twitter account and my personal account is @mariannegarvin. Hope everyone will follow me! It's the communication tool that allows the personal and business sides of my life to converge. The relationships we build in business are so valuable to success, but also what makes the work so much fun. I love the people in this industry. What advise would you give to women just starting out in commercial real estate? Doing work in this field is great fun! You see very tangible results which is very motivating. So jump in...take a risk...don't be afraid. Remember everyone has failures, but they will ultimately lead to your biggest successes. How do you manage the work/life balance? Technology makes our work so much easier to do. I like being connected because it enables me to be productive wherever I am. The trick is to be in the moment and to really enjoy the work and the play; to not sweat the small stuff; to remember Life Is Good! I enjoy the people I work with and many have become good friends which enhances my life. Who or what has been the strongest influence on your career and why? I learned a lot about being a real estate developer from Bill Klatsky, the former CEO of CDC. He encouraged me to be audacious, to be a tough, but fair negotiator, and to reach for the sky. He was a great story teller too. He passed away last year. A great loss to the industry. Where would you like to be 10 years from today? In the last 10 years I've helped to build 872 multifamily rental units, with 216 in the pipeline. Over the next ten years I hope to double or triple that production. There is such a dramatic need for high density development around transit hubs and in downtowns. My goal is to continue to partner with the for-profit and government sectors to leverage resources to accelerate supply for all income groups. Changing the ratio of apartments to single family houses to a healthier level will encourage young workers to come and remain on Long Island.