The Few, the Proud …

By Suzann D. Silverman, Editorial Director

They’re creative, community-minded and eco-friendly. But they also exemplify good business decisions, cost effectiveness and tough negotiations. That’s what it takes to be a winner of CPE’s Distinguished Achievement Awards. Now in its fifth rendition, the awards program this year lauded 16 projects, programs and transactions in eight categories—including the newest category, Best Design. The other awards were for Best Lease, Best Sale, Best Financial Structure, Best Development, Most Effective Repositioning/Redevelopment Plan, Most Effective Property Management Program and Most Innovative Corporate Strategy.

A distinguished panel of judges carefully reviewed the entries in each category and selected first and second place winners. The judges this year included Our judges drew on their in-depth knowledge and experience to select first and second place finishers. They included Ray Cirz, chairman & senior managing director of Integra Realty Resources; Neil Shah, managing director of RICS Americas; Gregg Gerken, head of commercial real estate lending for TD Bank; Hugh Kelly, clinical professor of real estate with the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate and the 2014 chair of the Counselors of Real Estate; Mark van Summern, principal with Perkins Eastman; W. Scott Allen, associate architect & project designer with Perkins+Will; and Eugene Flotteron, principal & director of architecture for CetraRuddy.

Read more about the winners in the July issue of Commercial Property Executive, view a slideshow of the properties and hear more from the judges about what their achievements mean for the industry.

The winners were as follows:

Best Lease:

First Place: Millennium Tower/Burnham Building in Boston. Submitted by Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which represented landlord Millennium Partners in its lease of the former Filene’s department store to Irish retailer Primark for its flagship U.S. store. The lease restores the anchor of the historic Downtown Crossing neighborhood.

Second Place: Crossing/900 in Redwood City, Calif. Submitted by DTZ, which represented landlords Kilroy Realty Corp. and Hunter Storm in their lease of the speculatively built transit-oriented development in downtown Redwood City to Box Inc., setting the stage for further technology-firm interest in the city.

Best Sale:

First Place: Project Fenway in Boston. Submitted by Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which represented The Blackstone Group/Equity Office in the record-setting sale of a five-property portfolio to Oxford Properties Group and JP Morgan.

Second Place: 50 Fremont St. in San Francisco. Submitted by Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which represented buyer salesforce.com both in its original lease at the property and in the early exercise of its option to purchase and solidify its ownership of an intersection in the popular South of Market neighborhood.

Best Development

First Place: Denver Union Station Multi-Modal Transportation Complex. Submitted by Trammell Crow Co., owner representative for the Denver Union Station Project Authority, a public-private consortium that came together to produce this transformative city hotspot.

Second Place: CityLine in Richardson, Texas. Submitted by developer KDC, this mixed-use community offers a dense, urban live-work-play environment unusual to the area.

Most Effective Repositioning/Redevelopment Plan

First Place: 475 Fifth Ave. in New York City. Submitted by owner TIAA-CREF, which purchased this well-placed, once successful property out of foreclosure and repositioned it for a far brighter future.

Second Place: The Shoppes at Knollwood in St. Louis Park, Minn. Submitted by owner Rouse Properties, which opened up a downtrodden mall and made it a vibrant location attractive to both popular retailers and the investment community.

Best Design

First Place: Mahdesian Learning Center and Client Innovation Hub in Culver City, Calif. Submitted by owner Servicon Systems Inc., this property strove to be “one of the greenest, safest and most sustainable buildings in the greater Los Angeles area.” And it has embraced the community with open arms.

Second Place: One at Palm, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai. Submitted by architect SOMA, this uniquely designed multi-family property pushed the envelope to offer residents spectacular views and luxurious living, drawing on a globally diverse and talented team.

Most Effective Property Management Program

First Place: Lincoln Centre in Dallas. Submitted by Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the longtime management team for the TIAA-CREF owned office complex, which initiated a series of stringent, cost-saving and community-minded programs last year that advanced the standing of an already trophy property..

Second Place: Best-in-Class Initiative for Kimco’s Shopping Center Portfolio. Submitted by Kimco Realty Corp., which extended its three-year-old initiative designed to upgrade its Tier One properties with a $1.4 million impact.

Best Financial Structure

First Place: Jasmine Place in Westminster, Calif. Submitted by the Capital One Multifamily Finance team who drew on their long-term relationship with owner Golden Horizon Realty in crafting a financial strategy that helped revive an almost dead project.

Second Place: Ward Village in Honolulu. Submitted by financier Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, which helped further construction of condominium towers in the master-planned community and was then able to syndicate out a portion of the loan.

Most Innovative Corporate Strategy

First Place: Select Income REIT. Submitted by the REIT, which in its purchase of Cole Corporate Income Trust achieved a strategic play with a new structure, accretive to its stock price.

Second Place: DTZ. Submitted by the real estate services provider, which last year was purchased by a consortium of private equity firms, then folded in Cassidy Turley, increasing its position in the U.S. and creating a solid contender in the marketplace.