John Novarr Addresses Cornell Program in Real Estate Students
On August 26, 2010, John Novarr, President of Novarr?Mackesey Construction, generously hosted graduate students from Cornell’s Program in Real Estate (PRE) at his student rental property, Quarry Properties. The presentation kicked off the fall 2010 term of the PRE Industry Seminar Series which brings PRE students, faculty and real estate industry leaders together. Novarr spoke to the fifty students and faculty comprising the Cornell Program in Real Estate (PRE) classes of 2011 and 2012 about his background and about his large proposed project known as Collegetown Terrace, a significant effort to expand his student housing holdings in the vicinity of Cornell’s Ithaca campus. It involves a proposal for a total of 1,260 bedrooms in new and existing apartment buildings on a contiguous property of approximately 16.4 acres. According to a July 27th article written by Krisy Gashler and appearing on ithacajournal.com, “Novarr had proposed tearing down 33 rental buildings in the area bounded by State/Martin Luther King Jr. Street, Quarry Street, Valentine Place and Six Mile Creek and replacing them with seven new apartment buildings, three of which would front on State Street.”
Following Mr. Novarr’s presentation, the PRE students were treated to a buffet and a chance to mingle with him and other guests. “Mr. Novarr is kind to have us to the site of his proposed development. Student housing is gaining reverence among real estate investors in the current recession. So it was refreshing to begin the semester with a contemporary student housing project. Plus he’s kicked the Ithaca dirt for generations and that’s very admirable,” said Khari Buck, a graduate student in the PRE class of 2011.
Background on John Novarr
John Novarr is a native of Ithaca whose father was a professor of 17th Century English literature at Cornell University. He graduated from Ithaca high school in 1962 and enrolled at the University of Vermont (UVM.) John left UVM to serve in the U.S. Army, receiving an honorable discharge in 1968. The following year, he re?enrolled at UVM and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1972— with a major in ancient history and a minor in philosophy.
Later, in the mid?1970s, John studied architecture at Cornell. During his college years, John Novarr also began his business career. In the late 1960s, he started out doing gardening and house painting. Most of the houses had deteriorated siding that needed significant repair prior to painting and the scope of his restoration work quickly expanded. In 1970, John and his friend Paul Mackesey formed a firm that called Novarr?Mackesey Construction— and the name stuck. The firm initially undertook bathroom and kitchen renovations and soon expanded into home additions. The business experienced healthy growth throughout the 1970s??until the high interest rates of 1981 caused a rapid decline.
The challenges of the difficult business environment of the early 1980s led to an opportunity that launched Novarr?Mackesey on the path to becoming a major restoration and new development player in Ithaca. Due to the high interest rates of the time, another developer had abandoned plans to renovate an old nurse’s dorm on a portion of the former Ithaca City Hospital site on South Quarry Street. Taking advantage of the distress, John negotiated what, just a few years later, appeared to be a bargain sale. Against all odds, he secured financing from a local bank that wanted to help the former owner, a major Ithaca institution, dispose of the site.
Since beginning the renovation of the former nurse’s dorm in 1982, John’s firm has continued to advance the reuse of additional portions of the former hospital site, including conversion of the former hospital heating plant to the Boiler Works Apartments and construction of the Casa Roma Apartments as well as other renovation and construction projects in the immediate vicinity.
Over the ensuing years, the Novarr?Mackesey firm has pursued numerous renovation and new development projects. One of the more significant is the 600?bed College Circle Apartments near Ithaca College, now owned by that institution. The firm started this project in the late 1980s. A recession that began in the early 1990s caused the project to become a significant financial challenge and fall under the threat of foreclosure. Fortunately, capital markets ultimately improved and the project was ultimately refinanced through a conduit loan from Wall Street. Ithaca College provided a profitable exit when it acquired the apartment community.
Background on the Cornell Program in Real Estate
Cornell University’s Program in Real Estate is home to the Masters of Professional Studies in Real Estate degree, a comprehensive, graduate-level curriculum that educates the next generation of real estate industry leaders. Cornell is also home to the Cornell Real Estate Council, an extensive network of over 1,400 real estate industry leaders, as well as the annual Cornell Real Estate Conference, now entering its 28th consecutive year.