Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce Centennial Gala dazzles

Chamber’s First 100 Years Celebrated in a Style Quintessentially Brooklyn

February 13, 2018 By Andy Katz Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Emeritus Carlo Scissura, current President Andrew Hoan, Centennial Chairman Peter Meyer and Chamber COO Rick Russo. Photos by Andy Katz

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The time was just past 5 pm.. on a drizzly Saturday evening. Everyone gathered on the Downtown Brooklyn Marriott’s 36th floor on Feb. 10 for a VIP reception that would precede the night’s main event. Nor was VIP used lightly here. In groups of twos and threes elected officials from federal, state, municipal and county government, party leaders from either side of the aisle, public institution heads, private sector dignitaries and leaders from the nonprofit world emerged from the bank of elevators and marched down the hallway.

But their own prominence notwithstanding, tonight was their turn to pay homage to a very special guest of honor celebrating its 100th birthday.

Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Andrew Hoan, beamed like the proud father he both literally and figuratively was, greeting arrivals as they rapidly filled the reception area.

“A hundred years in the rearview mirror,” Hoan declared, “And here’s to the next 1,000!”

Thinking in terms millennial… Some would call that hyperbole, but when you consider how much the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has achieved — establishing a prestigious Brooklyn Made brand, collaborating on Superstorm Sandy relief with all five chambers, winning New York State Business Council’s Chamber of the Year for 2017, arriving as finalists in the competition to house Amazon’s second headquarters — in just the past few years, it’s nothing more than an expression of simple reality.

Downstairs, adjacent the Marriott’s main ballroom, Tarik Mohamed and Kathy Rodriguez of Captivision set up a 360-degree virtual reality panorama of Brooklyn powered entirely by an iPhone app set into viewing goggles, while past the red carpet that leads to the banquet room a pair of Coney Island Freakshow performers — including “Serpentina” and her 8-foot albino Burmese python “Firecraker” — prepare to meet the public.

The evening’s first speaker, Amber Lasciak, founder of Redu NYC, had already received her $5,000 loan from the Chamber of Commerce. The money enabled Lasciak’s furniture recycling business to open a storefront on Van Brundt Street in Red Hook after Superstorm Sandy flooded the neighborhood and washed most of her startup funds away.

“That money enabled us to interact with the community and grow during a very precarious time for Redu NYC,” said Lasciak.

“The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has been the premiere economic development organization in the borough,” said TD Bank New York Market President and Chamber Centennial Chair Peter Meyer. After recounting some of the Chamber’s earliest days — including the inducting of female members in 1922, and a partnership to provide neighborhood services with legendary US Representative Shirley Chisholm — Meyer went on to point out: “Today’s chamber is a vibrant organization … We have nearly 1,000 people here. We’re the largest chamber in the state of New York!”

Taking the podium in Meyer’s wake, Chamber board Chairwoman Denise Arbesu praised Meyer, who, in capacity as chairman of the board back in 2008 “led us through some very dark days.” Arbesu went on to describe unveiling earlier in the day of the Peter M. Meyer Award, to be presented at every annual meeting.

Next up, Hoan spoke: “We’ve come a long way in Brooklyn,” he declared. “Just think a moment, we’re on our way to surpassing Chicago as the nation’s third-largest city … and we’re working hard at the Chamber to maintain this growth. At present we have more paying members than at any other time in the Chamber’s history!

“Just yesterday we released our comprehensive economic strategic development plan for Brooklyn … we worked nearly a year with many of you in this room … the private and public sector coming together to answer: what’s next for Brooklyn?”

Then it was time to present the Brooklyn Century Awards, recognizing outstanding contributions that prompted significant boroughwide changes. Winners included former Maimonides CEO Pamela Brier, The Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corportation — represented by Colvin Grannum; Robert B. Catell, former Keyspan CEO and current Chairman of Advanced Energy Research and Technology [ACERTC] at Stony Brook University; Alan H. Fishman, Chairman of the Board, Ladder Capital; Joseph M. Mattone, Sr, Chairman and CEO of Mattone Group, one of the original developers of Metrotech, and Forest City Ratner Executive Chairman Bruce Ratner.

After all of that, it was time to dance.