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On Wednesday May 16th, CREW Boston’s Public Strategies Committee hosted its annual Women in Government reception. Over 75 CREW members and invited guests gathered at the Union Club for the popular event. Energy ran high in the room as attendees networked before and after listening to the evening’s guest speaker Chrystal Kornegay, Executive Director of MassHousing. Chrystal was appointed in January 2018 to lead MassHousing, having previously served as the Baker-Polito Administration’s Undersecretary for Housing and Community Development.
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CREW Boston’s May luncheon included a panel discussion on the proposed redevelopment of Winthrop Square, a City of Boston-owned parcel of land (previously a parking garage) that will shape the future of the Financial District. The enlightening panel, moderated by Halle Auerbach, project manager at MP Boston (the developer behind Winthrop Square), was comprised of Kathleen MacNail, principal at MP Boston, Andy Hoar, president and co-managing partner at CBRE/New England, and Julia Rogers, director of sustainability at WSP.
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The 20th annual Achievement Awards took place on April 25 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza with over 300 guests gathered to honor 19 members for their outstanding and impressive accomplishments in commercial real estate. In addition to our Achievement Award honorees, we also recognized two very special groups this year, our Mentor/Mentee program, as well as the cohort of members from our inaugural Leadership Academy. Through these three groups that we recognized – our earnest Mentees; our future Leaders; and our esteemed Achievers – attendees saw how the CREW organization supports its members as they grow both personally and professionally.
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What does it take to start your own company? A group of CREW Boston’s Rising Leaders found out when we convened at Blue Moon Capital Partners’ office to hear from Kathy Sweeney and Susan Barlow, Blue Moon’s Co-Founders. Attendees learned about Kathy’s and Susan’s career paths, including an early stint on a cattle ranch, and what led them to form Blue Moon in 2013. The discussion hit on important topics like knowing when to take risks and how to persevere through tough times. Given Blue Moon’s focus on senior housing, we discussed the opportunities in that space and what inspired Kathy and Susan to start a fund focused solely on that asset type.
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On April 5th, the CREW Boston Sustainability Group hosted a presentation led by CREWBoston member Ellen Watts, and her Architerra colleague, Anna Arscott, to introduce rexBoston, Driving Resiliency, Leveraging Investment & Showcasing Innovation. rexBoston – resiliency exemplified – is a bold vision to catalyze 130 innovative current and potential projects throughout the City, accelerating climate adaptation and carbon neutrality and showcasing replicable solutions in an international resiliency exposition opening in 2020 and culminating in 2030. Inspired by CREW Boston members’ visits to Hamburg and Copenhagen, rexBoston embraces climate action as an opportunity for growth in support of the City’s Imagine Boston 2030, Climate Ready Boston, Go Boston, and Resilient Boston goals.
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Transportation specialists on a panel discussion on “How Innovation in Transportation Is Disrupting Real Estate Development, Planning and Design” were generally in favor of more BRT, or bus rapid transit, and were not so enthused over the idea of a gondola to get people from South Station to the eastern edge of the Seaport District.On the panel at a well-attended CREW Boston March lunch at the Hyatt Regency Boston Hotel, moderated by CREWBoston President Lisa Serafin, Principal at the real estate firm Redgate, the three panelists agreed that the economic health of the region depends on continue investment in transportation and that some commitments need to be made in the near future.
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Members heard from Pam Messenger with Friends of Post Office Square about the alliance formed in 2016 between Friends of Post Office Square, MIT and Boston Medical Center (BMC) to buy electricity from a large new solar power installation, adding carbon-free energy to the grid and demonstrating a partnership model for other organizations in climate-change mitigation efforts. Their 25-year Power Purchase Agreement enabled the construction of Summit Farms, a roughly 650-acre, 60-megawatt solar farm in North Carolina, the largest renewable-energy project ever built in the U.S. through an alliance of diverse buyers. Summit Farms has been operating for a year.
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In February, the CREW Boston Public Strategies Committee met MassDevelopment President and CEO Lauren Liss during the first lunch edition of the committee’s speaker series. Lauren, who joined the Agency in September 2017, discussed her experience in the public and private sector, as she served as Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner and as a partner at Rubin and Rudman. Lauren also detailed MassDevelopment’s various finance and development initiatives.
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Members connected in the new year with new and current members of the Housing & Community Development Committee at their annual evening social, hosted by Perkins + Will. Members had a great night of food which included a tour of their space.
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The Mentor Program had a very successful kick off lunch at KeyBank Real Estate Capital. This year’s Program is comprised of 50 members, including Peer to Peer and Mentee to Mentor pairs. Hayley Suminski and Joanna Murray, co-chairs of the Mentor Program, kicked off the lunch by welcoming the pairs and asking everyone to introduce themselves to the group. After introductions and learning about suggestions for a successful experience, the mentors and mentees broke out into pairs to formalize their match and discuss logistics, as well as, what the mentees are looking to accomplish to begin a productive and rewarding mentorship relationship.
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