Zimmer of Romer Debbas proud of $135 million sale of 122 East 23rd Street

Name: Sharon Zimmer, Esq. Title: Partner Company Name: Romer Debbas LLP What year did you start your career in commercial real estate: 1974 Real Estate Associations/Organizations: CREW New York What recent project or transaction are you most proud of? In December of 2014, I closed the $135 million sale of 122 East 23rd St., the building owned by my client United Cerebral Palsy of New York City, Inc., to an affiliate of Toll Brothers. This was a major project that had begun to take form early in 2013, and merited a high profile as a sale of a major asset by a non profit. However, for me the most rewarding part was being a participant in a transaction that would bring my client significant funds to dedicate towards its endowment and to long-term development and expansion of its programs and facilities to help the disabled. Who or what has been the strongest influence on your career and why? My father brought me up to believe I could do anything I wanted, and be anyone I wanted to be. That belief gave me the strength - or stubbornness - in the 70s to persevere and develop my expertise in commercial real estate, then a predominantly male dominion but a field that I found exciting, and to resist the pressure to become instead my firm's trust and estates partner. What is the first thing you do when you arrive in the office in the morning? My mornings commence with coffee and a review of the day's to-do list from the previous evening, which I revisit after review of the morning's email. What time management strategies do you find to be the most effective for you? I guess I have been lucky in apparently having an innate sense of how long things will take me, so time management has never been much of an issue. What is the best advice you have received and who was it from? The best advice I ever received was from the managing member of my prior law firm. Only a few years older than me, he was still my mentor and taught me that what was important was to listen to what people are saying beneath what you actually hear them say. List 3 women that you would like to have drinks / dinner with and where would you go? Hillary Clinton, Donna Hanover and Kim Cassidy, the current President of Bryn Mawr College. I would go with them to a quiet restaurant, sit back, and listen to them discuss the changing roles of women in the world. What did you want to be when you grew up? There was no one thing I wanted to be when I grew up; those were thoughts for the future. Even when I was accepted at law school, I was also accepted in a graduate program in Italian, my college major. So it could have gone either way.