“Towns need development,” he says. “After a long period of resistance, at this post-recession moment towns are starting to seize on what is in it for them. We are finding a more open environment both politically and community-wise. Now is a better time to get plans in front of communities.”

Somerset is currently battling a war of public opinion in Bloomfield – as it has done in Holmdel – to sway local authorities to authorize the start of work on a small, 13-acre residential development that has been debated for 25 years. “We will hang in there, and we are not giving up hope,” he says. “It is the strength of our vision that carries us forward.”

Other prominent panelists include Todd Anderson, principal of The Hampshire Companies; SJP Properties’ leasing and marketing executive Jeff Schotz; The Rockefeller Group’s vice-president of development Clark Machemer and Roseland Properties’ Debra Tantleff, who holds that same title with her company. Each of their companies is currently at work on major redevelopment projects, including SJP’s planned construction of two residential towers for The Center at Fort Lee on land where various redevelopment plans have failed over the course of many decades.

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