Celebrating five years since the inception of its portfolio, W&H hosted the city's top real estate brokers at its annual party at the '21' Club in November. Several brokers and brokerage firms were recognized for their achievements throughout the portfolio in 2008.

Andrew Goldberg, Eric Gelber and Matt Chmielecki of CB Richard Ellis won the award for Retail Deal of the Year in recognition of the lease they negotiated on behalf of Sovereign Bank at 1350 Broadway. Joel Wechsler of Grubb & Ellis accepted his firm's award for the most pre-builts leased in 2008. Mitch Arkin of Cushman & Wakefield received the award for Most Creative Deal of the Year for representing ML Management, Inc. in the lease of the spectacular penthouse of 250 West 57th Street. Richard Bernstein, Ralph Giordano and Adam Ardise of Colliers ABR received the award for the Largest Deal of the Year - Coty's lease of nearly 90,000 square feet at the Empire State Building.

In keeping with tradition, W&H donated $10,000 to the Robin Hood Foundation, which funds community-based poverty reduction programs, in the name of the firm with the most signed leases in the W&H Portfolio for the year. This year, the honoree was CB Richard Ellis.