AREW: The 2007-08 season comes to an outstanding finale

By Frances Delgorio This is AREW's 30th year as the first and foremost association supporting the professional goals of women in real estate. In the ensuing years since its founding in 1978, AREW has grown, thrived, continued to innovate, welcomed men as members, showcased top real estate professionals as speakers at our luncheons, perfected the art of producing outstanding networking events, held seminars on timely topics, organized behind-the-scenes tours and achieved a position as one of the industry's top-tier associations. All of the above-and more-were celebrated in grand style on May 8th when many of the best and brightest from the industry convened at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Time Warner Center to celebrate AREW's "Three Decades of Breaking Ground" at our 30th Anniversary Gala. As anticipated, it was a highlight of the spring season in the real estate industry. We produced a retrospective of AREW's 30 years, presented a Special Recognition Award to AREW's founder and first president, Merle Gross-Ginsburg, honored three vibrant real estate companies for outstanding achievement in three categories: Innovative Development: Swig Equities, LLC, Kent Swig, president; Urban Renewal: Forest City Ratner Cos., Joanne Minieri, president and COO; and Creative Capitalization: Apollo Real Estate Advisors, Richard Mack, managing partner-and, most of all, set the stage for beginning our fourth decade as a major industry force. Now, as we end this 2007-08 season with our Members Only Luncheon on June 3rd when I will step down as president of this amazing association, is a good time to share with you what I truly believe is important about our organization and why it is one you should consider joining. AREW has one of the industry's richest programs. Our luncheons, often hosted by major media figures, feature top real estate leaders who address timely topics. We also host seminars, tours, networking events, have a mentoring program that pairs younger with more seasoned professionals, and make a difference in the greater community through the AREW Charitable Fund. AREW's membership is comprised of the full spectrum of the industry. Thus it is that brokers, project managers, architects, corporate real estate professionals, marketers, bankers, institutional lenders, title and escrow professionals, attorneys, facilities designers, property managers, appraisers, developers, engineers and educators, at every level in their fields, commingle at AREW events. The multidisciplinary mix creates a stimulating dynamic of opinions, ideas, interests, expertise and opportunities. You get to know others in noncompetitive disciplines to form the contacts that lead to business. Our membership is comprised of an amazingly talented breadth and depth of real estate professionals. (On a personal note, I've never left an event without a new business contact.) Frances Ann Delgorio is the 2007-08 AREW president and senior vice president, leasing and marketing at Cohen Brothers Realty Corp., New York, N.Y.