On Tuesday, October 25, Real Estate Finance Association (REFA) held its third Members Only Luncheon program of the year focused on regional transportation and how it is tied to the continued development in the Greater Boston area. The program was held at One Federal St. Jim Rooney, president and CEO, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce moderated the informative panel discussion, which included speakers Charley Leatherbee, executive vice president at Skanska, Jim Fitzgerald, senior transportation manager at Boston Planning & Development Agency and Ted Tye, managing partner at National Development.

Shown (from left) are: Ted Tye of National Development; Jim Fitzgerald of the Boston Planning & Development Agency; Charley Leatherbee of Skanska; and Jim Rooney of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce at the October 25 event.

REFA partnered with CCIM on October 27 for a fundamentals program on New Lease Accounting Rules and the Impacts on the CRE Industry. Justin Frenzel, senior manager - real estate assurance practice at PwC and Brian Connolly, managing director at JLL went into great detail pertaining to the changes in new lease accounting and discussed the potential impacts. This program was held at PwC’s new location, 101 Seaport Blvd.

On Wednesday, November 9, REFA held an Education program focused on a Hospitality Market Overview and Outlook for 2017. The program took place at Holland & Knight, 10 St. James Ave. The program was moderated by Rachel Roginsky, principal at Pinnacle Advisory Group with panelists Jim O’Connell, principal at HREC Investment Advisors; John Fahy, senior credit manager at TD Bank and Larry Trabulsi, senior vice president at CHMWarnick.

Shown (from left) are: Justin Frenzel of PwC; David Swerling of PwC; and Brian Connolly of JLL at the October 27 event.

REFA’s 6^th Annual Holiday Happy Hour will take place on December 1st from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Central Wharf Co., located at 160 Milk St. This year, REFA will be holding a Gift Card drive for FamilyAid Boston, an organization dedicated to helping prevent and end homelessness within the Boston area. Each gift card or monetary donation brought in will be exchanged with a raffle ticket (one per person) for a chance to win a great prize. Come celebrate the year with us by networking with colleagues and enjoying complimentary hors d’oeuvres in a relaxed and festive setting! Both REFA members and non-members are welcome to attend.

REFA will hold its last program of the year on December 8. This program will be a Members Only Luncheon focused on the topic of Life Science and Lab Space within Boston. The program will be moderated by Curtis Cole, senior vice president & partner at CBRE | New England, with panelists Bill Kane, senior vice president at BioMed Realty; Thomas Ragno, founder & principal at King Street Properties LLC and Michael Shires, head – global business services at Shire.We hope you are able to join us for our end-of-year programming!

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