Mary Ann Tighe, CEO, New York tri-state region, CBRE: What's interesting is how quickly people stopped thinking about Sandy. Every building on Water street picked up its infrastructure so all of the buildings have filled up now. There's also been a tremendous amount of rewiring so the infrastructure is better. But the next question is what are we doing to protect the island. I don't think we've figured out the array of solutions we need and how to fund them.

William Mack, founder and chairman, Mack Real Estate Group: Downtown will continue to advance, possibly at the detriment of other areas, like Midtown. Rent differentials will be much less between Downtown and Midtown over the next few years.

Blumenthal: What's does New York need to stay competitive with other global cities?

Ross: We have to look at ourselves as a business city and not just get caught up in providing affordable housing. From a cost standpoint, we must be competitive in the office sector with other global cities.

William Rudin, vice chairman and CEO, Rudin Management Co.: We need to diversify our economic base. We've always been a city that welcomes everybody; that creates the energy we all thrive on.

Mack: We have to be competitive on real estate and other taxes. We also have to make sure we have safe, clean streets. As long as there's that perception—and reality meets it—there will be a favorable atmosphere here.

James Kuhn, president, Newmark Grubb Knight Frank: If you look at polls, the city's demographics are changing, with today's minority groups becoming tomorrow's majority. So we need to organize a consensus and bring these groups to our side by creating more wealth across the board.

Gary Barnett, president and founder, Extell Development Co.: The city has had a great quality of life for the last 20 years and we need to make sure that's preserved. Also, at the high-end, wealthy people need to be comfortable investing here.

Blumenthal: Is there continuing demand for condominiums and what's the social value of those units for the super rich?

Barnett: They're providing tremendous economic benefit. Two of our buildings will generate billions of dollars in taxes, jobs and spending at Nordstrom and the Park Hyatt.

Also, we're a beacon of safety and stability for the rest of the world. We see people from the Middle East and China coming here because they feel safe and that they're money is safe. If they have to run away from their countries, they have a safe place to live.

Rudin: To have affordable housing, you have to have high-end units and everything in between. But luxury buyers are not all foreigners; some are Americans who come here for business and want a place to stay or they could be from an overseas-based company establishing a presence here. It's simplistic to say all high-end buyers are foreign.

Barnett: Almost 50% of our buyers are from New York.