REBNY's Gerrety Award Goes to Gotham CEO Picket

NEW YORK CITY-For 48 years of its eight-decade history, Joel Picket has led the Gotham Organization as chairman and CEO, spearheading its evolution from a general contractor into a full-service real estate firm. Yet Picket has also found plenty of time to give back to the community, and it is for this reason that the Real Estate Board of New York will honor him with the Kenneth R. Gerrety Humanitarian Award, which recognizes meritorious service to the community by a REBNY member, at its 118th Annual Banquet next month.

A longtime supporter of the arts and the city's cultural institutions, Picket currently serves as a board member of the New York Philharmonic, Park Avenue Armory and the Foundation for the National Archives. He's also committed to supporting higher education and advances in healthcare, currently serving as a trustee fellow of Fordham University, a member of the University Council of Cornell University, and a trustee on the board of the Mount Sinai Hospital Group. Within REBNY, he's a member of the board of governors and executive committee.

When he took the reins in 1965 of what was formally incorporated as Gotham Construction in 1931 by the second generation of his family, Picket built into one of the nation's largest privately held construction contractors. It has produced more than 30,000 residential units in the New York metro area along with a number of large-scale hospital and educational projects.

At the same time, he expanded Gotham's reach into other sectors for both construction and development. Under Picket's leadership, Gotham served as both developer and builder on Harlem USA, a retail and entertainment complex that was the first to bring national retail tenants to the area above 96th Street. The firm is also developing Gotham West, a mixed-use Gotham development on the Far West Side that will include 1,240 apartments, landscaped courtyards, ground-floor retail, and the conversion of a 1904 school to condominiums.

Picket is slated to take the dais along with REBNY's other honorees at the Jan. 16, 2014 event, to be held at the New York Hilton. The Kenneth R. Gerrety Humanitarian Award celebrates the memory of Gerrety, who served with distinction as REBNY's EVP for many years and gave valuable community service to his hometown of Garden City, NY.