86 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • MARCH 2018 86 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • SEPTEMBER 2017 86 LONGISLANDPRESS.CO M • SEPTEMBER 201-----------TUTU111
Scott Rechler: Regularly
recalibrate reality
By TIMOTHY BOLGER
As president and CEO of
Uniondale-based RXR Realty,
Long Island’s largest commercial
landlord, Scott Rechler has rare
insights into local real estate
market. We recently caught up with
him to get his thoughts on his latest
development, the importance of
thinking regionally, how to keep up
with the fast pace of information
and why his homemade pizza
dough is the best. Here are excerpts
of our conversation:
Long Island Press: You have a
few projects in the planning and
development phase. Which one are
you most excited about?
Scott Rechler: The one that
I’m most excited about is what
we’re doing in Glen Cove with
Garvies Point. It is going to be so
transformative to the Glen Cove
community in taking what was a
blighted, abandoned site and really
making it an asset for opening up
the waterfront to the community
at large.
LIP: What is your vision for the
company?
SR: Our focus is really
understanding our customers
and community that live in the
New York Metropolitan region.
As the economy changes and
demographics change and the
needs of our customers change,
what we do is create real estate
products that ultimately enhance
the quality of life and serve our
customers and communities. Really
having a good understanding of
our customers and community
is what drives our vision and our
strategy.
LIP: How about your vision for The
Hub, the area in central Nassau
that includes Nassau Coliseum,
Museum Row and several colleges
and major commercial buildings?
SR: Obviously, we own a lot of
property around The Hub and
I think having it developed as a
mixed-use community with office
and entertainment and housing
would be a very big positive for that
whole downtown Nassau County.
I’m disappointed it’s taken so long
to get something going there and
I’m hopeful now with the new
county executive, Laura Curran, it
gets accelerated.
LIP: How do you juggle your real
estate business with your roles at
the MTA and the Regional Plan
Association?
SR: Part of it is going back to
our strategy, which is very much
regionally focused and being an
active member of our community.
There’s a consistent element
of those activities and RXR’s
activities that overlap in terms of
understanding the community and
trying to make the community a
better place for people to live and
work.
LIP: How do you think the new
federal State and Local Tax
deduction cap will impact LI?
SR: It’s not a good thing. We
already live in a high-cost-ofliving
community. To the extent
that we have higher taxes that
add more weight to a branch of
something that already has a lot of
weight on it. Although I think that
people who live in the New York
Metropolitan region recognize
they have a higher cost of living
and they live here for the quality
of life, for the job opportunities,
for the cultural opportunities.
I don’t think we’re going to see
a large migration from it, but
I think that we’d be better off
without having additional costs.
LIP: How did growing up on
Long Island shape your worldview?
SR: I grew up in Port Washington
and spent a lot of time in
downtown Glen Cove because
my grandparents lived there,
so I spent the summers there. I
think growing up, a recognition
of the importance of community
was always key for me. To have
a vested interest in maintaining
its vibrancy and competitiveness.
Being someone who has always
traveled around to the city and
the region, understanding that
Long Island and New York City
and New Jersey and Westchester,
while they’re independent, they’re
inexplicably linked in the
sense that the successes
of each are critical
for the region
as a whole.
Having that
regional
lens from a
young age
honed my
focus.
LIP: Do
you have any
sayings?
SR: Every six months I put a new
saying by my office door of what
I want people to be focused on
and what I want to be focused on.
Right now, it’s ‘regularly recalibrate
reality.’ Because we’re living in a
world that’s changing so quickly
that what was true today, may not
be true tomorrow and it may not
be true yesterday. My view is you
have to regularly recalibrate what
that reality is and shift gears as
appropriate.
LIP: What would readers be
surprised to learn about you?
SR: I love to cook. I don’t know if
people know that about that me. I
studied cooking in Italy. I pride
myself on my homemade
pizza dough and pizzas.
Scott Rechler was No. 4
on the 2016 Power List.
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