Natalie Herald, Fidelity Investments

On Thursday, December 1, REFA held their Annual Holiday Happy Hour at Central Wharf Co. for a night of networking and celebration between colleagues and friends in a festive setting. Similar to years past, REFA held a gift card drive benefitting FamilyAid Boston, an organization dedicated to fighting homelessness within the Boston area. The Holiday Happy Hour was well attended with many donations to FamilyAid Boston.

REFA’s final program of the year was held on December 8 as a Members Only Luncheon focused on the topic of Life Sciences and Lab Real Estate in Boston. Speakers for the program included moderator Curtis Cole, senior vice president & partner, CBRE | New England and panelists Bill Kane, senior vice president, BioMed, Stephen Lynch, principal, King Street Properties LLC, and Ed Dondero, director of real estate & planning, Biogen Realty. At this year’s December Members Only Luncheon, I was congratulated by REFA for my services and support as the 2016 REFA president, and we also recognized Paul Nasser of Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation for his future term as 2017 REFA president. 

In 2016, REFA hosted over 20 educational programs featuring 50 industry leaders from the commercial real estate finance community. REFA’s membership is at all time high with over 600 members, including 250 emerging leaders and 80 corporate sponsors. 

REFA would like to thank all of the speakers, the members and the corporate sponsors for their help and support throughout the past year! We look forward to working together in the New Year!

REFA’s first program of 2017 will be the Annual REFA Forecasting Luncheon. The luncheon will be held at WilmerHale, 60 State St., on Tuesday, January 17. John Fowler, executive managing director, HFF will moderate a panel discussion focused on the Industry forecast for the coming year.

To learn more about REFA including membership, events, and ways to get involved, please visit us at www.refa.org. Follow REFA on Twitter @REFABoston.

Natalie Herald is a real estate loan originator at Fidelity Investments and 2016 president of the Real Estate Finance Association, Boston.