Recap of Events

BOMA/NY is pleased to announce it hosted its 2016 Annual Holiday Luncheon at the Grand Hyatt New York on Friday, December 9, 2016.

Over 550 industry leaders, association members and guests attended the sold-out event to celebrate the holiday season, network and honor Liberty Park, the 2016 winner of the Civic Betterment Award.  Each year BOMA/NY honors a New York-based person or organization with the Civic Betterment Award.  The recipient is recognized for dedicating substantial time and effort to helping solve the problems of New York and enriching the lives of the inhabitants in the metropolitan area.

In addition, the 2016-2017 Board Leadership and newly elected Officers and Directors were installed by Brian Harnetaiux, BOMA International Chairman.

BOMA/NY Officers include:

• President James R. Kleeman, RPA, Port Authority of NY & NJ

• Vice President Ronald S. Zeccardi, The Monian Group

• Treasurer Hani J. Salama, PE/LEED AP, Capital Properties

• Matthew J. Duthie, RPA, JLL

BOMA/NY newly elected Directors include:

• Joseph Bellina, RPA, Empire State Realty Trust

• Laura Belt Ponomarev, The 58-64 40th Street Corp., Inc.

• John Brandstetter, The Brandstetter Group

• Bridget M. Cunningham, Vornado Office Management LLC

• Tom Krol, LEED AP, Donnelly Mechanical Corp.

• Albert Voci, CPM/LEED AP, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank

• Evan Walke, Westfield Corporation

Liberty Park became an innovative project of sustainability and community activation by the Port Authority of NY and NJ when they were designing and engineering the World Trade Center Vehicular Security Center (VSC) in Lower Manhattan.  Opened to the public in 2016 and situated on the south side of Liberty Street at the World Trade Center site, Liberty Park is essentially the roof of the VSC.  The design of Liberty Park enhances open space, creates a community amenity and provides an elevated greened roof structure for the general public to move in an east/west direction making an above grade connection to Battery Park City via the elevated bridge spanning West Street.

Liberty Park came to fruition after more than two years of active community input through a community planning and design task force set up by the Port Authority. As an amenity to the community, the park has been utilized by many local residents, tourists and business people.  The home of the future St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Liberty Park also includes two very special additions: The Anne Frank Sapling and the Horse Soldier Statue.

The event also featured a performance by illusionist Collins Key, who most recently completed the 36-city America’s Got Talent National Tour, opened for Demi Lovato performances across the United States and Canada and presented at the Teen Choice Awards. Collins Key has also been featured as a speaker for TEDx and is the top-subscribed magician on YouTube with over 1.6M subscribers.