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March 27, 2007
The man behind Mesa del Sol is no stranger to getting things done
The Albuquerque Tribune
A story about the Forest City exec behind the Mesa del Sol project, Michael Daly, has this reminiscence from our own Bruce Ratner:
In 1987, Daly, then in his early 20s, caught the eye of Bruce Ratner, now CEO of Forest City Ratner, the New York arm of Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland. Ratner is also owner of the New Jersey Nets NBA franchise.
"I hired him because he was the youngest guy on our account," Ratner said. "He was young. He was eager. You could tell he had integrity.
"He was honest, in terms of always telling the truth as well as in the way he dealt with companies."
Daly later went to work for Forest City on MetroTech, an urban renewal project in Brooklyn, with the tall task of luring Wall Street companies out of Manhattan.
As head of the project's commercial division, Daly enticed global investment firms like Goldman Sachs, power utility KeySpan Energy and the New York Stock Exchange as tenants to the project.
"People thought it was not possible to get companies to move to Brooklyn," Ratner said. "Michael led the effort."
NoLandGrab: With MetroTech losing tenants, it might be time to bring back Daly. Then again, a guy with "integrity" might feel more at home with Bruce's Cleveland cousins, who have a little more practice at telling the truth.
Posted by lumi at March 27, 2007 6:38 AM