NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Communities repositioning aging downtown business districts to attract commercial developers, tenants, and new residents will need strong leadership capable of persuading constituents to embrace emerging development models, say morning plenary panelists at NJ Future's 13th annual Redevelopment Conference, held Friday in New Brunswick, NJ.
“You need to engage your residents and your constituents, absolutely,” says Eugene R. Diaz, founder and principal of Prism Capital Partners, who participated in the panel, “Making Every Place A Great Place to Live and Work.” “But human nature being what it is, people don't like change, and they don't understand change. And it takes it takes powerful, strong leadership to tell them, 'You're wrong. Don't fight this. This is where the world is going. This is what needs to happen.'”
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.