NEW YORK CITY-The city’s global competitiveness as a hub for technology, healthcare, energy and other emerging sectors in the wake of international pressure was the main topic of conversation among panelists at the 2012 RealShare New York conference on Tuesday morning. The event, sponsored by ALM Real Estate Media Group, parent company of GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum, attracted approximately 400 attendees to the Grand Hyatt in Midtown.

Fresh off its recent merger with BGC Partners, James Kuhn, president of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, talked about the brokerage’s bigger national platform and plans to double in size over time. “We wanted to build a great company,” he said, during the event’s “Inside the Real Estate Mind” panel with ALM Real Estate Media Group’s vice president and group publisher, Michael Desiato. “We didn’t want to do this because we wanted a boatload of money,” adding that NGKF’s culture is defined as a “great entrepreneurial business.”

On the Manhattan front, Kuhn explained that New York City remains a “safe haven” for investors to park capital, but as competition for core assets and development parcels increases, product is becoming more and more scarce—and land values are rising. “Whether it is multifamily or it is office, you can always do something with properties anywhere,” he said. “But the challenge? It is difficult to acquire quality assets today. Multifamily is like buying a treasury bond.”