Matthew Furlong, Senior Vice President, Real Estate Transaction Services

What led you to NYCEDC?

The same thing that led me to NYC from Ohio—to contribute to the greatest city in the world. Our challenge at NYCEDC is ensuring there remains this place where people and families of any background can come to improve their lives, needing only a dream and willingness to work hard.

Before NYCEDC, I spent 10 years on Wall Street and knew early on that it did not align with my true passions. I learned of NYCEDC by seeing our logo on project sites and was taken aback at the scale and swiftness of positive change the organization brought about, particularly in western Queens, where I was living at the time. When I was ready to make a career change, I put an application into NYCEDC Strategic Investments and was fortunate to be hired, subsequently transferring to Real Estate Transactions (RETS). Working at NYCEDC has been a dream fulfilled and privilege of my professional life. I hope this journey is only beginning!

What’s your current day-to-day role?

RETS structures transactions that transform underutilized properties into projects that promote economic growth and job creation, among other goals. Much of our work is realized through partnerships with private and nonprofit developers. We create underwriting models to determine the City’s economic interest in, and financial feasibility of, projects, and negotiate agreements and deal terms related to land sales and leases required to implement projects. RETS partners closely with Planning, Land Use, External Affairs, and other NYCEDC and City colleagues on project scoping, developer selection, and deal execution.

How did your past position prepare you for the transition?

My time on Wall Street prepared me for intense work environments, including working for leaders with high expectations and delivering on tight timelines. NYCEDC Strategic Investments gave me public sector and organizational context. RETS has really fused together the entirety of my prior work experience while providing numerous new growth opportunities. It has been an exciting ride!

What advice would you give to someone just starting in your field?

The bedrock to success in any field is focusing early in one’s career on establishing a broad set of fundamental skills that have transferability across job types. Equally important throughout my career is not being afraid of putting myself in work environments comprised of driven leadership and smarter, higher-caliber colleagues who challenged me, sometimes with tough love, to go beyond what I thought I was capable of. Overcoming seemingly impossible tasks builds resiliency and confidence to take on more challenging work in the future.

What is your favorite part about working at NYCEDC?

New York City has provided me with a lot personally and professionally, so the opportunity to work on transformative projects shaping our city, and in such proximity to key decision-makers, is so thrilling. Another amazing thing about NYCEDC is the impact that you—a single employee—can have advancing our work. There have been numerous examples at NYCEDC where the effort I put in made a direct tangible impact on a project’s trajectory. That is unique and really cool.

What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?

I am a boring, regular guy so these questions are always tough! I love the outdoors, hiking, and gardening. I spend a lot of time in the Catskills. As much as I adore and am enlivened by urban living, New York City can be a tough place to live uninterrupted. A big part of life in NYC is having access to amazing natural landscapes to decompress and restore. The NYC metro area offers so many wonderful public parks and recreation areas. Like most people, I feel a strong connection to the natural world and see parallels between the structure of natural systems and the structure of cities.