Vornado Chief Executive Steven Roth and Ethan Penner, chief executive of Mosaic Real Estate Investors, were among real estate professionals honored at the Fordham Real Estate Institute's second annual awards gala.
Roth, the developer behind notable projects such as the Penn District developments surrounding the Penn Station transit hub, was honored with a lifetime achievement award, while Penner, often described as the father of the commercial-mortgage-backed securities market, received the visionary award.
Roth’s “accomplishments in everything he's built out throughout the city and the country speak for themselves,” Ryan O’Connor, chair of REI’s executive advisory council and chief executive of Clinton Management, the management arm of development firm Douglaston Cos., said in an interview.
The visionary award “is really designed for someone who either created a new market or built a business that didn't exist" with "a lasting impact on the real estate market. … [Penner] is known for his role in the creation of that [CMBS] market."
Roth, who also served as the “honorary host” of the event, described Penner as “an innovator and philosopher.”
“Ethan is a financial first responder,” Roth told a crowd of about 250 real estate professionals and some students gathered in a ballroom at the school on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on June 18. “When there is chaos and confusion, and the markets are in riot, you must enter the fire in search of the opportunity. … He’s always done that in his career. That’s what makes him unique and different.”
The event also honored Annemarie DiCola, CEO of Trepp, with a “groundbreakers” award, and Mosfigul Aktar, CEO of AlphaRithm AI, with a “titan of tomorrow” award.
The event aimed to benefit the school’s Building Futures Scholarship Fund, which gives low-income New Yorkers access to REI’s courses and programs, and to careers in real estate and construction.