Jeff Gural, chairman and principal of GFP Real Estate and an owner of the iconic Flatiron Building in New York that's undergoing restoration, was honored by an industry group before more than 1,100 attendees, including executives and government leaders.
The Real Estate Board of New York, in returning to hosting the 130th REBNY Annual gala, presented Gural with The Bernard H. Mendik Lifetime Leadership in Real Estate Award, at the newly renovated and reopened, iconic Gilded Age hotel, Waldorf Astoria New York.
“There are very few people that I met in the industry throughout my career who was as unpretentious, generous, philanthropic, loyal committed to both his family and business as Jeff is,” Newmark CEO Barry Gosin said in a video tribute in presenting his longtime friend and former partner with the award.
Gural’s father, Aaron, had acquired and built up Newmark & Co., which later evolved into two firms: GFP Real Estate, one of New York’s largest privately held real estate owners with stakes in famed Manhattan properties such as the Flatiron Building, and Newmark, now a publicly traded brokerage powerhouse led by Gosin.
REBNY said in a statement it honored Gural "for exceptional accomplishments and invaluable contributions to New York and its real estate industry."
“I firmly believe when you leave this world, all you leave behind is your reputation,” Gural said in prepared video remarks while receiving the award. “I’ve basically based everything I’ve ever done on ‘my handshake is good.’”
A winner of two other REBNY awards in the past, Gural, 83, told CoStar News he wasn’t expecting to receive the honor after some 50 years as a member. “I was really surprised when they called me,” he said. “You only get it once.”