Moderator Michael Stoler, the president of New York Real Estate TV, asked panelist Paulo Garcia, SVP at Mercantil Bank, why his company provided a construction loan to Gary Barnett's Extell at City Point, a $1 billion, 1.8 million square-foot development in downtown Brooklyn. In 2015, Extell bought the last development site at City Point, apartment buildings on top of retail and offices.

In Brooklyn prices have gone up tremendously, especially in the for-sale sector, and Mercantil saw the pent-up demand for these products in downtown Brooklyn, Garcia said. It was a larger loan than Mercantil usually makes, and a syndicate of banks is involved with the project. But when Extell made their presentation about their vision in downtown Brooklyn, it was something with which they agreed.

Garcia noted, “We're getting to a price point for downtown Brooklyn that is unprecedented. It's actually close to $2,000 per square foot. The absorption has been phenomenal. In the first month of sales, they closed on 50 units. That gives you an indication of the amount of demand that exists for a particular product in downtown Brooklyn.”

Panelist Eli Weiss, principal of Joy Construction Corp., defined South Brooklyn as Manhattan Beach and Brighton Beach. Stoler asked Weiss's opinion of John Catsimatidis' 440-unit development at Surf Avenue, by Coney Island.

Weiss pointed to South Brooklyn's unique beach access. “How many people can come home after work and in the summer be on the beach, and then jump onto the New York subway system to Midtown?”

“With the exception—that it's a schlep,” interjected Stoler.

However, Weiss pointed to the affordability. It's not the Long Island Rail Road. It's not Metro-North. You can live in Brooklyn and have a suburban lifestyle, he said. Weiss also noted that with real estate taxes no longer deductible, people living in Westchester, Long Island or Bergen County will feel personal budgetary impacts. “Real estate taxes in Brooklyn, especially if there is a tax abatement, are significantly lower,” he said.

Referencing Weiss's childhood Stoler said, “The boy from Brooklyn—all of a sudden you're the King of the Bronx. You're involved in a major project that may include the soccer stadium. Why do you see the Bronx as such a great opportunity?” As reported by The New York Times in July 2018, although not final, there are plans for a project led by Jorge Madruga of Maddd Equities and Weiss with Joy Construction, where they would build and lease a stadium to the team and create housing, the park and hotel. The stadium would be part of a 20-acre multi-billion dollar development.

Weiss said as part of the Bloomberg administration, he worked in financing low- and middle-income housing in the Bronx. Mayoral administrations from Giuliani to de Blasio have spent billions of dollars in the Bronx through affordable housing, transportation, infrastructure and with rezoning, Weiss said. “What you've seen in Hudson Yards and in Harlem, you're seeing this story play out in the Bronx. Years and years and years of public investment, leading to public-private investment and now going to just simply private investment."