September 25, 2003
Putting Foundation Dollars to Their Best Use: The Role of Cost Benefit Analysis
Speakers: Joseph Cordes, Associate Director of the School of Public Policy and Administration, George Washington University; Sharon M. Oster, PhD, Yale School of Management; Christopher M. Harris, Program Officer, Ford Foundation; Hildy J. Simmons, Managing Director, Global Foundations Group at J.P. Morgan Private Bank; Gladys Carrion, Executive Director, Inwood House; William D. Watley, Chief Executive Officer, New Jersey Commerce & Economic Growth Commission; Howard P. Tuckman, Dean of Rutgers Business School.
This lecture was hosted by the National Center on Nonprofit Enterprise and featured a presentation by Joseph J. Cordes, PhD, of George Washington University. Professor Cordes reviewed how cost-benefit analysis was developed to evaluate government regulation. He believes that it can help decision makers in the nonprofit sector. Using his methodology, nonprofits would assign monetary values to evaluate the social benefits, social costs and transfer effects of any of their programs. Cordes believes that by looking at the impact of programs on different stakeholder groups, a nonprofit professional can learn a lot about their programs. Overall, he expressed hope that cost-benefit analysis would provide consistent measurements that would allow comparison between programs.
After the presentation, a panel of experts made comments. Sharon M. Oster of Yale University noted that it was difficult to project benefits into the future because "discount rates" often run close to zero. In other words, while an investment in a security may have a rate of return of 5% a year, a nonprofit enterprise might only achieve a 0-1% rate of return.
Other commentators worried that cost-benefit analysis does not take into account individual traits like leadership. Gladys Carrion, executive director of Inwood House, worried that cost-benefit analysis may be another fad that adds more burdensome paperwork to already overworked social service providers.
Posted by lawrencehecht at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2003
Jersey City: New York's Sixth Borough
A roundtable organized by The Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute at Baruch College and The Office of the Mayor of Jersey City.
Speakers: Mark Munley, Director of Economic Development, Jersey City; Robert Cotter, Director of City Planning, Jersey City; Robert Burchell, Director, Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University; Robert Rudin, Executive Vice President, CB Richard Ellis; Mitchell Hersh, Chief Executive Officer, Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, Richard Lefrak, President, The Lefrak Organization; Timur Galen, Vice President, Goldman Sachs & Co.; Shirley Jaffe, Vice President for Economic Development, The Alliance for Downtown New York; Claude Shostal, Senior Fellow, New York University Real Estate Institute.
Jersey City has experienced a rapid expansion in its commercial real estate market since the mid-1980's. Currently, most of the tenants belong to the financial, insurance and real estate (F.I.R.E.) industries. There was a general agreement that there just is not enough new office space in Manhattan to fill all future demand.
Jersey City competes with Midtown and Downtown for tenants, but presenters all agreed that Jersey City's real estate market should be viewed as a sub-sector of the larger regional economy. Jersey City's competitive advantages are in cost, product and access. Besides lower rents, the cost of doing business in New Jersey is 35% lower than in New York. Compared to buildings in New York, Jersey City office space that is easily converted to the needs of large corporations. Compared to lower Manhattan, Jersey City is more accessible to airports and prospective workers driving from the Jersey suburbs.
There were some worries about the commercial market place. Robert Rudin, a representative from C.B. Ellis was especially worried about a short-term oversupply of office space. In fact, while developers are doing fine, many tenants have been forced to sublet their spaces, becoming de-facto landlords.
Posted by lawrencehecht at 07:14 PM | Comments (0)
