Meet CPE’s 2017 Stars to Watch: Alison Novak, The Hudson Cos.

By Alexandra Pacurar

Each year, CPE features some of the commercial real estate industry’s top young talent. The high achievers selected as Stars to Watch represent a broad range of specialties, companies and geographic locations.

Following is a brief introduction to one of this year’s outstanding young professionals. Read here about all 2017 Stars to Watch.

Age: 39

On the Job: Principal, The Hudson Cos.

With Company Since: 2006

Why She’s a Star: Launched the firm’s green building efforts. Oversees the acquisition, design, financing, construction and completion of a wide range of residential projects: affordable and high-end, rental properties and condominiums, high-rise and single-family.

What Others Say About Her: “Alison and I have closed numerous financings together over the last 10 years starting with a 44-unit condo in 2007 and more recently a $105 million construction loan for the world’s largest Passive House building (the House at Cornell Tech project in New York City). Alison is savvy and practical. She is always trying to push the envelope, but also wants to understand why I’m holding to a negotiating point.” —Anna Belobrovka, Vice President of the Commercial Real Estate Group at Wells Fargo

Key Mentor: Kelly Snider, a colleague at the San Jose Redevelopment Authority. With Snider’s encouragement, Novak earned master’s degrees in city planning and real estate development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Good Works: Holds leadership positions with several New York City-based non-profits: the Osborne Association, Recycle-A-Bicycle (chair) and Women in Housing and Finance (president).

Quotable: “Originally, when I got the job at Hudson, I thought I would be here for a couple of years and I would live and breathe the private sector and then I would go back to the public sector, but in reality I’ve been here for ten years and I don’t see myself leaving,”