BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

When in late November we asked the city’s commercial real estate leaders to submit as comprehensive a list of female professionals on their payroll as possible—be they lawyers, accountants, brokers or analysts—the references to Mitt Romney’s infamous line about binders of women came early and often.

As questionable as it may have sounded at first blanch, however, our notion from the beginning was to put a human face on an underrepresented demographic of New York’s commercial real estate industry, where female membership within the Real Estate Board of New York and the Real Estate Special Interest Group currently stands at 43 percent and 31 percent, respectively, according to internal reporting.

And while those numbers are encouraging compared to five years ago—let alone 1985, when the actual tally of overall REBNY members eclipsed the number of women now serving there today –evidence shows that executive-level real estate professionals are still few and far between. Indeed, with nary a single woman running a real estate company boating 50 employees or more in New York City and under 20 percent of female directors currently serving on the boards of the Big Apple’s 100 largest companies, it’s hardly a surprise that at least one industry leader described the disparity as a so-called pink ghetto.

As such, over the next two days, The Commercial Observer will publish its not-quite-comprehensive year book, shall we say, of the commercial real estate industry's female professionals, from its junior-level associates to its shot callers. But first, here's a slide show of 20 of the industry's most recognizable and talented executives.

To read all 20 profiles of real estate's top female professionals, click here.

BY ADELAIDE POLSINELLI

The glass ceiling needs a shine.

In fairy tales like Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, little girls learn that rewards, like a knight in shining armor, are earned by being passive, demure and quiet. The few women who do speak out were usually witches or evildoers. But unlike what we were told in these fairy tales, women are born for business.

Today, studies show that women process about 20,000 words per day, while men process about 7,000. Women have approximately 11 percent more brain cells responsible for language. Women can speak at a speed of 250 words per minute and have 12 percent more neurons in the area of the brain responsible for memory, feelings and critical thinking.

Adelaide Polsinelli silo for webStudies also show that women use more parts of their brains then men when given a wide variety of verbal and spatial tasks. This strengthens their ability to multitask and interact effectively on many levels. In other words, women are born for business.

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BY ROBERT KNAKAL

Currently, things couldn’t be much better in the New York City investment sales marketplace. The pace of activity is hectic, as buyers and particularly sellers rush frantically to get transactions closed by the year’s end.

This action leaves no doubt that the fourth quarter of 2012, and notably December, will produce a tremendous flurry of activity that will bring quarterly metrics (number of buildings sold and dollar volume of sales) to levels that will rival those last seen in 2007 (in January, we predicted that the fourth quarter of 2012 would have 1,000 properties sold citywide and more than $10 billion of sales, and it appears we will be close to both of these marks).

There are several reasons for this great activity: low interest rates, excessive demand and, most importantly, increased supply brought on by the threat of increases in capital gains taxes. So the biggest questions on the minds of sales brokers are, will this activity continue, and what will 2013 bring?

knakal-silo-for-webIt is my opinion, unfortunately, that the number of properties sold in 2013 will be 20 to 30 percent below the number that we will see in 2012. The reasons for this are based on historical empirical evidence and the fact that a very tangible externality (tax policy) has greatly impacted seller behavior this year.

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BY ROBERT SAMMONS

Talk about a nice round number—50!

Well, maybe not so nice, as 50 is the total number of Midtown Manhattan buildings with at least 100,000 square feet of (mostly) contiguous availability. (I say “mostly” because, in some cases, there are two large chunks within a building that can be put together to equal more than 100,000 square feet.)

Midtown_BigBlocksSubmarket.aiOne year ago, that number stood at 40. To put it further into perspective, there are 20 such blocks of space Downtown and 13 in Midtown South. These numbers also include buildings under construction, which in Midtown means 250 West 55th Street, 55 West 46th Street, 1045 Avenue of the Americas and the Related/MTA Hudson Yards Building Number 1 South Tower (that’s a whole lot of words to describe one building, but clarification is necessary so as not to confuse it with the future Extell project called 1 Hudson Yards).

To read the full story, click here.