Melissa Burch, SVP of commercial and residential development at Forest City Ratner Cos., discussed some of issues facing the Nets Arena development at Atlantic Yards and how the project team was working with smaller initiatives to green the project. While FCRC was not concerned with running afoul of regulatory agencies—she and Cross noted that for both of their projects, much of negotiating was done upfront, limiting post-hoc regulation—FCRC, she felt, had an ability to experiment with a larger pipeline of developments, allowing and incubator for solutions. This prevented mass implementation of unsure practices.

The luncheon speaker, Dr. John Quigley, professor of economics, I. Donald Terner Distinguised professor UC Berkeley and director of the Berkeley Program of Housing and Urban Policy, explained that the notion that green was actually worth the investment. According to an intensive study put together by himself and four colleagues, Quigley noted that greener buildings held value better throughout the downturn, compared to its neighboring buildings of comparable size, year, class, etc.

The implementation of this, however, is a costly proposition with still yet unproven value-add. Dr. Jurij Paraszczak, director of research industry solutions, IBM, pointed to data collection and organization as a starting opint, while Cross and Burst see an amiable model. Burst said that public-private partnerships are a good ways to update the infrastructure saving the government money and the investor risk. Cross concurred saying, use the private sector a greater degree for infrastructure. “Always asking the government to always do it is, I think, asking too much,” he said.