Ms. Jones Austin, 41, has been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and told that her chances of surviving the disease are slim unless she receives within the next few months a bone marrow transplant, which today is as simple as a giving blood. The most common process, the peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation, is a non-surgical out-patient procedure where the donor gives blood from an arm; a machine separates the blood-forming cells and returns the blood to the donor through the other arm.

“Jennifer is African-American and the chance of finding a match from African-American donors is 1 in 20,000, while the chance of finding a match from outside of her race is 1 in 1,000,000,” said Jamie D. Mitchell-Bowen, a friend whose children attend the same school as Ms. Jones Austin’s children.

“The “Be The Match Registry” is in great need of registered donors of African-American descent because while the Caucasian population has a 92+ percent chance of finding a match in the Registry, Jen and other members of minority groups have significantly less than half of that chance of finding a match in the current pool of donors,” Ms. Mitchell-Bowen said. “Recent statistical research indicates that there are more than 5 million Caucasian registrants and only about 500,000 registrants of African descent.”

Ms Mitchell-Bowen said today’s medical technology allows for testing of potential donors as well as actual transplants with little disruption to the life of the donor(s). Testing, for example, is a simple swab of the inside of the cheek. Ms. Jones Austin’s supporters have organized testing in Donor Identification Drives in homes, churches, and other locations throughout New York City, New Jersey, Ohio, and Maryland during December and January, and are seeking additional sites.

The scheduled testing locations are located on the Save Jennifer website at http://www.savejenaustin.com/events.php.

In New York City, a Donor Identification Drive is scheduled for  Sunday, December 20, 2009 – 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Bethany Baptist Church, 460 Marcus Garvey Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY.

Additional donor drives are listed at www.icla.org , click on events and then marrow drives. These drives are being conducted by the registry and will also help Ms. Jones Austin find a donor.

On-line registration is another way for people to get tested. People may register online by going to http://join.marrow.org/JJA1068. Note that the “promo code is JJA1068. They will receive an at-home testing kit without charge, and have the option of making a monetary donation. The kit contains everything one needs to retrieve a testing sample at home. It is quick, painless and easy to do. Once the sample test is completed, it should be returned to the registry to be tested in an enclosed stamped envelope.

Ms. Jones Austin was born and raised in Brooklyn and currently resides in the borough. She is the youngest daughter of the late Rev. William Augustus Jones II, who was pastor of Bethany Baptist Church in Brooklyn for 43 years. In addition to the devotion and commitment she shows to her own family, Ms. Jones Austin has dedicated her life to helping improve the lives of lower income and disadvantaged children and their families. Her efforts have benefited thousands of people across New York State and beyond, improving their chances for better health, education, and a safe living environment.

Professionally, Ms. Jones Austin is Senior Vice President of Community Investment for the United Way of New York City. Prior to joining the United Way, she served as New York City’s first Family Services Coordinator, a position to which she was appointed by Mayor Bloomberg after four years as a Deputy Commissioner in the City’s Administration for Children’s Services. As Family Services Coordinator, she was responsible for leading multiple interagency initiatives for children and families. She also played a lead coordination role in supporting the work of the Mayor’s Commission for Economic Opportunity. She has also served as Civil Rights Deputy Bureau Chief for Policy, Legislation and Public Outreach for then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and as the Vice President of Development for LearnNow/Edison Schools Inc.

She is an alumna of Rutgers University, where she earned a BA degree; Fordham, where she earned a JD degree; and New York University, where she earned an MS in Management and Policy.

Irene LoRe, executive director of the 5th Avenue BID, and Carl Hum, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce after the City Hall press conference.

Small business owners from across the five boroughs of New York City, chambers of commerce, non-profit organizations, trade associations and more gathered on the steps of City Hall to speak out against the New York City Council’s proposed Paid Sick Time bill (Intro No 1059). The group, representing an unprecedented and diverse coalition, says the bill will hurt the city’s economy and local businesses.

“While Intro No 1059 is well-intentioned, its impact, both short and long term, will be damaging to the business community to the tune of about two to three billion dollars in new costs. Our business and non-profit communities are trying to weather current economic challenges, maintain current levels and look toward future growth through job creation, yet they are being asked to shoulder this latest burden,” said Jack Freidman, Queens Chamber of Commerce. “How can the City’s business community compete when they are at such a disadvantage?” he added.

“Our printing company has 32 full-time employees. We currently offer six paid sick days and forcing us to offer nine paid sick days will cost our business another $30,000 per year and that will be a burden on our company which is challenged by this current economy. I will have to cut down on their vacation time to cover these costs,” states KY Chow, GM Printing in Long Island City. In addition, other businesses have indicated that they will scale back on other benefits as well as reconsider new hires and expansion plans.

Among other things, Intro No 1059 does not consider business size, revenue or nature and will also:

Mandate all New York City businesses to provide up to nine paid sick days for every employee (full- time and part-time)
Result in fines ($1,000) per violation if a business owner is found in violation of the law
Expand the definition of “sick” beyond federal guidelines
Put New York City at a competitive disadvantage to other cities and states (including other cities within New York State!)
Force business owners to maintain five years worth of records for every employee (including part-time and seasonal workers)
Include an employer retaliation clause that is so broad, it creates the potential for antagonistic behavior by poor performing employees
Will cost the entire business community over $8 billion a year
New York City’s employers have already cut overhead, payroll, and services in response to the current economic crisis; add to these increased taxes (including the new mobility tax), water rates, electricity rates, real estate taxes and fines and fees and it is clear how New York came to be ranked 49th out of the nation’s 50 states in business friendliness.

“This bill is not just about the ability for workers to have mandated paid sick days. We hope the City Council will think of this as they consider Intro No 1059, and look to strengthen current city departments to handle the complaints of those workers who are actually experiencing employment problems instead of punishing the entire business community and creating more burdens on the very businesses that are striving to maintain and provide jobs in the first place,” states Manhattan Chamber of Commerce President Nancy Ploeger.

Proponents of the bill point to San Francisco as a model for implementing Intro No 1059, when in fact that city’s legislation took more than seven months to implement because of confusion; San Francisco’s labor law enforcement agency was forced to seek additional staff and funding because current levels are inadequate to enforce the legislation – New York City has no such agency; and, most importantly, a formal evaluation of that city’s law is yet to be conducted.

“This bill isn’t a public health bill, it’s a bill about the future of New York City’s economic development and growth, ability to provide jobs and the viability of a strong business community,” said Robert Bookman, counsel, New York Restaurant Association. “You can’t punish an entire community for the acts of a few. We hope the City Council will think of this as they consider Intro No 1059,” he added.

Source: Press release from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce

Lori Rafael, director of Real Estate for the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, Alison Novak and David Kramer of Hudson Companies, and Karen Auster, marketing consultant for the project and head of Auster Events.

David Kramer, of Hudson development, held an open house November 12 for members of the Brooklyn Chamber’s Real Estate Development Committee at the firm’s new green, luxury residential project in Brooklyn–third + bond.

Third + bond, which is expected to receive LEED-GOLD and Energy Star designations, will be completed in the Spring of 2010. Prices range from $311,500 for a studio to $1,381,000 for a three+ bedroom with three baths. The development is approved for FHA and SONYMA mortgages, and offers mortgages with as little as 3.5% down and interest rates as low as 4.75%. Corcoran is the exclusive sales and marketing agent.

The 44 eco-friendly homes at 103-115 Third St. and 404-406 Bond St. feature the following:

Water
Dual flush toilets
Low flow fixtures
Organic landscaping with native plants

Sustainable Materials
Forest Stewardship Council certified, solid hardwood floors
Locally produced panelized construction system to minimize construction waste
Incorporation of fly ash into foundation concrete–reuse of industrial by-product

Energy Savings
Highly insulated building envelope to greatly reduce heating and cooling needs
Energy Star refrigerator, washer and dryer, and dishwasher
High efficiency lighting, including automatic dimmers in common hallways
Individual control of heating and cooling for each residence
Double-paned windows with low-e coating to minimize heat transference

Readers can follow the progress of third + bond on a blog about the development written by Mr. Kramer and his associate Alison Novak at www.brownstoner.com. More details about third + bond are available at www.thirdandbond.com.

I laughed out loud. I had recently arrived here, one of the thousands of young professionals elbowing their way into New York City every year like waves of soldiers storming the Normandy beaches.

What I found in my adopted city was a healthy dose of free market love on the corporate level, but a peculiar bias against free markets among all social classes on the local level.

For example, a highly compensated executive I knew lived with his professional wife in a rent stabilized penthouse apartment on the Upper West Side around 72^nd Street that featured two bedrooms, two baths, and a wraparound deck with breathtaking views of Manhattan; all for a whopping $800! With the money he saved on rent, he invested in a country house in Connecticut where he retreated on weekends and holidays.

After growing up in a state where land and private property are revered, and only people with low incomes qualify for subsidized housing, I found the City’s rent control laws mystifying and extremely unfair, particularly to newcomers and young people. 

With a salary of less than $30,000, my housing options were limited so I headed to the outer boroughs. For around $850, which included rent and electric heat, I landed a tiny apartment in the attic of a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Park Slope in the early 1980s, boys and girls, wasn’t the Park Slope you know today. The good news was the neighborhood had gotten so bad that hundreds of families had left, which meant there was a lot of housing available for those fresh off the jet.

The bad news was you couldn’t get cabs to go the neighborhood; there were few retail stores; the main grocery featured suspicious produce and surly employees; drugs were so prevalent that my priest held candle light vigils outside the local crack houses; and you had to run home from the subway station at night to avoid being mugged by a purse snatching crack head.

It turns out, however, that Manhattan’s loss was Brooklyn’s gain. We found that if you called them—the narcotics detectives—they would come and eventually every inch of Park Slope was safe to live in. The crack dealers were replaced by professionals who started a baby boomlet and filled the parks and sidewalks with kids and Maclarens.

Rent controlled housing in Park Slope was rare because the few large apartment buildings that existed had been converted to co-ops, and most brownstones had fewer than six apartments. As a  way to lock in housing costs, many of us, with support from the Community Reinvestment Act, bought co-ops, single family brownstones, or multi-family buildings with tenants that would help us pay the mortgage. While we were reviving our neighborhood and others were doing the same around the City, residents of rent stabilized buildings remained frozen in time.

In the 1990s, some fairness was injected into the rent laws when it was determined that landlords in rent stabilized buildings didn’t have to play daddy to wealthy tenants, and that apartments inhabited by families making $175,000 or more annually for two consecutive years or with rents above $2,000 could be decontrolled. I said to myself, “Finally, welcome to the real world.”

Also in the 1990s, the Democratic Leadership Council and President Bill Clinton influenced the Democratic Party to recognize the value of the private sector as a solution to the massive changes occurring in the economy. The recession of the early 1990s, which eliminated hundreds of thousands of jobs in the tri-state area, meant white collar workers couldn’t rely on corporations for jobs; globalization meant blue collar workers couldn’t rely on manufacturing for jobs; and efforts to balance the budget meant lower and middle-income workers couldn’t rely on government for jobs.  

The only remaining job option for many was entrepreneurship. The Clinton Administration encouraged it by establishing Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) with the goal of supporting small businesses in low- and moderate-income communities. The City encouraged rebuilding neighborhoods by supporting commercial corridors that had been ravaged by riots and neglect and creating Business Improvement Districts. The City was becoming more business friendly. 

These developments injected new life into outer borough neighborhoods that desperately needed services. I was inspired to open a PR and marketing firm and had the opportunity to work for several organizations that encouraged economic development in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Harlem.

I was a consultant for BEDC, which provided entrepreneur training and micro loans to individuals opening home day care centers, nail and beauty salons, retail stores, restaurants, and service businesses. I also worked for Community Capital Bank, which made commercial loans to the owners of a retail flower shop and Laundromat, both in Bedford Stuyvesant, small manufacturers in Sunset Park, a gas station owner in Maspeth who bought and cleaned up a multifamily building, a clothing designer in midtown Manhattan, and other businesses.

Many of these small businesses were started by new immigrants who brought to New York City an entrepreneurial drive that had been nurtured in their old countries. They created jobs for themselves and others, provided much-needed services for newcomers settling in revitalized neighborhoods, and rebuilt commercial corridors formerly plagued by vacancies and crime.

Now these entrepreneurs, who have already been hard hit by the Great Recession, are under assault by the Working Families Party, which is urging the City Council to support a law requiring all small businesses, regardless of size or revenue, to provide mandatory paid sick days to employees.

If passed, this law will hurt even the small businesses that currently offer paid days off because owners and managers will be required to endure suspicious unscheduled absences, yet prohibited from reprimanding employees; provide paid days to part-time employees who never received them before; see tax dollars that should be used to help small businesses get through this recession diverted to creating a new department charged with executing this legislation; be burdened with maintaining paperwork on all employees for five years; and subjected to employee challenges for up to three years.

The measure requires that businesses with fewer than 10 employees provide five paid days off, and businesses with more than 10 employees provide nine paid days off. The size of a business will be calculated by adding together the number of employees who worked the previous year, full-time and part-time workers, temporary employees, and consultants.

Retailers are reporting that sales are down 50 to 75 percent and many are shuttering their stores all around the city. It appears that the WFP and its union supporters are so secure with their incomes and benefits, so naive about how capitalism works, or so disconnected from the effects of this recession, that they have no idea how small businesses are struggling.

We’ve seen massive layoffs in law, retail, real estate, construction, finance, nonprofits, small businesses, advertising, and media. Only the City’s unions have been spared the carnage. Yet the WFP is trying to impose new regulations on small businesses that will further reduce the tax revenue needed to pay the salaries of the City unions that the WFP professes to be supporting. It doesn’t make sense.

The proponents of this bill seem to have the naïve notion that all businesses are wealthy Fortune 500 companies with unlimited resources. This isn’t true. In many cases, this law will pit poor part-time workers against poor business owners, many of them immigrants, who are barely paying rent or eking out a living. How will the City pay for this new regulation at a time when we’re facing a $4 billion budget deficit? Why would anyone advocate a law that could lead to higher unemployment when the City’s official unemployment rate is over 10 percent, and many believe the true unemployment rate is closer to 17 to 20 percent?

On the housing side, the WFP lobbied hard in Albany last spring to re-control apartments that had been de-controlled within the last 12 years. The measure didn’t pass but a Court of Appeals ruling in October stated that the owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village improperly raised rents and deregulated apartments while receiving tax breaks. The full impact of this ruling on the real estate industry hasn’t been determined.

At a recent luncheon, David R. Greenbaum, president of Vornado Office, had harsh words for the state Appeals Court ruling and said he feared we were living in the “Republic of New York.”

“We have an agency of the government which promulgated rules on how to deal with J-51 variances and decontrol that was reaffirmed by three administrations (Pataki, Spitzer, and Patterson), but the court said you’re not allowed to rely on the government’s interpretation of the rules,” Greenbaum said.

A New York Times article interviewed several Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village tenants who are professionals and I suspect could easily afford to pay free market rents.

I feel as though I’ve been hurled back in time 25 years. Highly paid professionals are still clinging to their rent stabilized apartments, perhaps to finance their second homes or luxury vacations, and landlords and small businesses are once again under assault.

I thought we had made more progress, but with the WFP influencing the local Democratic Party and elected officials and the recent Appeals Court ruling I’m afraid we haven’t.  I wonder if it’s just a matter of time before I see “New York City is a Marxist, Leninist Hell” written on a piece of plywood outside a New York City construction site.

All three indices tracked by the “Sentiment Survey” have risen considerably since the near-collapse of financial markets last fall–a reflection of respondents’ collective sense of relief at having survived the worst of the turmoil, and the extreme uncertainty and paralysis of last year giving way to a greater sense of acceptance of market realities. However, the latest numbers–particularly the ”Current Conditions” reading of 56–remain well below the ideal 100.  An overall index of 100 means all survey respondents have answered that conditions today are “much better” than they were a year ago, and will be “much better” 12 months from now.

“The problems now are more clearly defined and there’s a grim sense of reality setting in, but that’s a long way from saying markets are stabilizing or that conditions are on the mend,” said Roundtable President and CEO Jeffrey DeBoer. “With job losses mounting, consumer confidence in the doldrums, and a relapse of the recession still possible, additional policy action is needed to restore credit availability–the lubricant of the economy and job creation–and to address the equity shortage resulting from falling commercial property values,” DeBoer continued.

An overwhelming majority of the 100+ respondents in the Q4 survey said property values are down today vs. a year ago, although the percentage declined to 77 percent from 93 percent in the previous quarter. But respondents were far from optimistic about future valuations, with 71 percent saying they expect values to remain “about the same” or to erode even further in the next 12 months.

“So-called “zombie buildings” and empty storefronts on Main Street will only mean bigger budget shortfalls for local governments, more layoffs for construction, hotel and retail workers, and further devaluation of investment portfolios held by individual and institutional investors,” DeBoer added.

“If there is any good news to report, it’s that the trillion-dollar refinancing crisis in commercial real estate now has the attention of policymakers at the highest levels–including President Obama.”  Fox Business News reported Oct. 16 that the president had been briefed recently by his top economic advisors about rising “maturity” and “performance” defaults on commercial mortgages and what this might mean for the U.S. banking system.

Capital market conditions remain extremely fragile, the survey shows, but there is now a greater mix of perspectives on the markets’ trajectory. On the debt side, 28 percent of those polled said credit availability is worse today than a year ago, compared to 71 percent who said so in the previous quarter. The percentage who characterized equity availability as worse today than one year ago also dropped significantly–from 55 percent in the 3rd quarter to 17 percent in the latest survey. As with the Fed’s latest “Beige Book” report last week, DeBoer cautioned any signs of “improvement” or of a leveling off in the rates of decline should be looked at in the context of where things were 12 months ago.

Not surprisingly, given the depth of dysfunction in commercial real estate debt markets, almost all participants in the current survey (95 percent) expect debt market conditions to be at least the same or better 12 months from now.

Although U.S. policymakers have adopted or implemented several policy recommendations offered by The Roundtable in its “Five-Point Liquidity Plan” this past year, additional steps are needed to reconnect loan originators and secondary markets; bring new equity into commercial real estate (primarily, through reform of the Foreign Investment in Real Estate Property Tax Act (FIRPTA); and to improve the Term Asset-Backed Lending Facility’s (TALF) ability to foster new issuance of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS).

The quarterly Sentiment Survey seeks to capture feedback from a broad range of real estate industry segments, asset classes, ownership vehicles and capital structures, including owners and asset managers, financial services firms and operators. It is administered for The Real Estate Roundtable by FPL Advisory Group of Chicago. A PDF of the entire report is available online at www.rer.org.

The Roundtable brings together leaders of the nation’s publicly-held and privately owned real estate ownership, development, lending and management firms with the leaders of national real estate trade associations to jointly address key national policy issues relating to real estate and the overall economy. Collectively, Roundtable members’ portfolios contain over 5 billion square feet of office, retail, and industrial properties; over 1.5 million apartment units; and in excess of 1.3 million hotel rooms.

(This content is from a release issued by The Real Estate Roundtable.)

I’ve watched Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, and Jorge Posada play for so long that seeing them together in another World Series felt like having all the kids home for the holidays. Where did the time go? Wasn’t it just yesterday that they were all in their 20s?

Jack, 6, after attending a Yankees game.

When the core four joined the Yankees, my son, Jack, was just starting his Little League career and New York City was pulling itself out of a recession. Real estate prices had fallen so far that they didn’t return to their 1988 levels until 1998. Later we survived the Dot-com bust and then there was the tragedy of 9-11. 

 The night the Yankees lost the 2001 World Series Jack, who was 11 at the time, broke down and cried. After all the City had gone through in the weeks following September 11, he felt we deserved that victory, that we needed to win more than any other city because we had suffered the most.  He was heartbroken when it didn’t happen.

I’ve often thought that Jack had bottled up the horror of 9-11 until that night and with the Yankees defeat it all came pouring out–the classmate’s dad who died; the 12 missing firefighters who worked out of the firehouse he walked by to and from school every day; the eerie buzz of dozens of airliners streaming over his touch football game in Prospect Park the day the airports reopened; endless memorial services; the smell of death that hung over the City for months.

That heartbroken little boy from 2001 grew up and is away at college. Now we’re in the middle of a different kind of national crisis, the Great Recession. But the Yankees victory this week gave us hope for better days when we won’t be dwelling on office vacancy rates, falling condo prices, distressed properties, or the credit crunch.

Andy, Derek, Mariano, and Jorge, we’ve been through a lot together over the years.  Thanks for reminding us that we can dream again.

Gosin said he is seeing positive absorption in the Midtown market and that his firm was having a good fourth quarter. He admitted, however, that the first quarter of 2009 set the bar so low that anything would look better.

“I was so bearish for so long, for probably four years, that everyone got tired of hearing me cry wolf,” Gosin said.

David R. Greenbaum, president of Vornado Office, said the market is extraordinarily healthy when you look back 12 months when the industry was facing disaster. No business wanted to make leasing decisions a year ago because they weren’t sure that they were going to survive.

Greenbaum said, “As tenant brokers, we’ve said to tenants, ‘if you’re confident that your business will survive, this is the time to look into a long-term lease.’”

Rents have dropped and velocity is down. For example, a building that rented office space at $90 a square foot at the height of the market, will rent that same space today at $65 a square foot.

With an office vacancy rate of about 14 percent, Gosin said tenants will move to financially stable buildings with good owners and managers and stay away from signing leases in “zombie buildings” that are financially troubled.

Corporate bond spreads have narrowed, and Gosin believes there is pent up demand in the economy, but that banks aren’t going to lend money in the near future until they can be sure of the risk.

Gosin estimates that there could be as much as $100 billion sitting on the sidelines and that real estate activity will pick up when the gap between bid and ask prices narrow and good buys become available.

“All the real estate loans that are impaired are being kicked down the road,” he said. “If they were marked to fair market value, the money center banks would be insolvent.”

Greenbaum added that the market is staying alive because of 0 percent interest rates, and agreed that the government has sanctioned rolling loans over and waiting for the market to improve so that banks don’t have to take a hit today.

Jonathan J. Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel, said he is seeing a 25 percent decline in pricing for condos and co-ops from the 2008 peak. The year started off slow, but residential sales surged in the summer because of federal stimulus measures.

Miller said because values have dropped since December 2007, 25 to 30-35 percent of the deals signed 18 months ago aren’t closing. “There is an excess supply of luxury condos since the market correction,” Miller said.

Credit is still tight, so the recovery has a way to go, Miller said. He also predicted that unemployment will increase in the next year. “In history there has never been a recovery in the New York City economy without Wall Street hiring,” he said.

Greenbaum said he is more bullish about the employment picture because the city still hasn’t lost as many jobs as it did during the recession in the 1990s.  “If you would have asked anyone last year, all would have predicted private sector losses of more than 200,000,” he said.  “Tenants are using this environment to trade up, consolidate, and plan for growth.”

 Greenbaum, however, had harsh words for the state Appeals Court ruling regarding Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village and the J-51 tax breaks

 “We have an agency of the government which promulgated rules on how to deal with J-51 variances and decontrol that was reaffirmed by three administrations (Pataki, Spitzer, and Patterson), but the court said you’re not allowed to rely on the government’s interpretation of the rules,” he said.

Miller said the ruling compounds the weak environment in the residential real estate market right now. Without the government stimulus, low interest rates, first time tax credits, “you’d have a horrific residential housing market at the moment.”

Gosin added that if the courts can overturn government policies for real estate, it isn’t good for business because it adds uncertainty to the market.

The panel was moderated by Michael Stoler.

“It will be a bleed out, not a tsunami,” Karson said of the commercial real estate market. “Lenders will hold onto the assets.”

Karson was one of the speakers on a recent National Realty Club panel, “Current Mortgage Financing and Joint Venture Opportunities” that was moderated by Allan Riley.

Panelist Melissa Farrell, a managing director at Prudential Mortgage Capital Company, said life lending totaled $1.3 billion the first six months of the year, but has slowed down in recent months.

She added that Prudential had a $3 billion appetite for lending this year and is looking for the right transactions. Loans for commercial buildings with stable cash flow such as office buildings, industrial sites, and retail regional malls are being sought by Prudential, but not average hotels. In the next 18 months, the company will put out between $5 billion and $6 million.

“We ask where are the deals and we think they are with current lenders,” Farrell said. “We’re not seeing foreclosures and dumping into the market.”

Prudential is a more conservative lender today and is making loans with 55 percent to 65 percent leverage, although it might go up to 70 percent, Farrell said. The debt yield is between 12 percent and 14 percent, and loans range from $10 million to $100 million, and $200 million to $300 million for portfolios.

George M. Klett, executive vice president of Signature Bank, manages a commercial real estate portfolio of $2 billion and makes loans ranging from $1 million to $25 million, but has gone as high as $40 million.

Klett stressed that Signature retains the loans in its portfolio and doesn’t sell them or securitize them, a practice he criticized as risky. He described himself as a conservative relationship lender who also thinks outside of the box.

Signature is interested in multi-tenanted apartments that offer cash flow, Klett said, but is less interested in office and retail projects because of concerns about the economy and unemployment. No one is doing construction or development loans or any loans that Wall Street analysts and regulators will criticize loans they deem to be too risky.

Klett believes interest rates will remain low next year and pointed out that they are currently half of what they were in the recession of the early 1990s.

“People are sitting on the sidelines with money, waiting to invest,” he said.

Simon Ziff, president of Ackman-Ziff, said his firm has taken one deal to market to raise equity this year. Prices aren’t attractive because sellers still think their properties are worth more than they are.

He said the Fed’s efforts to revive the secondary markets through TALF are stimulating new lending.

Ziff said he’s seeing positive activities he wouldn’t have predicted a year ago. First, there has been an increase in foreign investment in the last six weeks; second, a new Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities deal was made through TALF; third, Wall Street has had its biggest year ever issuing new equities; and fourth, when banks start clearing their balance sheets in four to six months, the herd mentality in real estate will kick in and result in more deals.

The article states, “The movement is simple in concept if not always in execution: Produce less waste. Shun polystyrene foam containers or any other packaging that is not biodegradable. Recycle or compost whatever you can.”

It turns out that communities don’t want landfills located near them; even residents of rural areas are balking.

So how can we cut down on garbage in an urban environment like New York City?

Vandra Thorburn has found a way in Brooklyn by offering Vokashi™, a product developed in Japan that enables residents to dispose of waste without depositing it in landfills. Landfills contribute to nearly 34 percent of all man-made methane released in the U.S., according to the Vokashi™ fact sheet.

Here’s how it works. Thorburn provides a 5 gallon, airtight, Vokashi™ container in which the following can be collected:
fresh fruits and vegetables
prepared foods and leftovers
cooked or uncooked chicken & fish bones
cheese, eggs, and eggshells
coffee grinds and teabags
dried leaves and wilted flowers
biodegradable paper products

After the scraps are fermented with bran inoculated with Effective Microorganisms™ for at least seven days, the waste can be planted in a garden or Thorburn will pick it up and plant it in a dedicated composting site in Brooklyn. The organic matter decomposes in the ground within three to four weeks.

The costs:
Vokashi™ bucket $18
32 oz. Vokashi™ bran $12
5 gallon Vokashi™ bran $65
Pick up service for 1 apartment or house $40 a month
Pick up service for multiple apartments at one address, each apartment $25 a month

For more information, call Thorburn at 1-866-989-9848, vokashi@gmail.com, or go to www.vokashi.com.