After hosting a sell-out crowd last year, the Rutgers Business Center for Real Estate Winter Symposium returns next week.

Presented with Sills Cummis & Gross PC, “New Jersey at a Crossroads: How and Where Do We Grow From Here?” takes place March 4 at The Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick.

Running from 8:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m., the day features four panel discussions and additional remarks. You can register online here.

According to organizers, the event will explore how New Jersey can retain and attract residents and businesses while modernizing transportation and utility infrastructure, addressing housing affordability, recognizing climate change, reconciling regional planning and local home rule, and more.

Preview the agenda below:

Keynote lead-off presentation

Tim Touhey
Former chairman, NJ State Planning Commission; former CEO, NJ Builders Association

Introduction and overview

Ted Zangari
Chairman, Real Estate Department, Sills Cummis & Gross PC

It Starts with a Plan: Reconciling State, Regional and Municipal Planning

Moderator: Sheena Collum
Township of South Orange mayor; executive director, American Planning Association–NJ Chapter

Panelists:

• Dan Kennedy, CEO, NAIOP New Jersey
• Sen. Troy Singleton, D-7th District
• Jacquelyn Suarez, commissioner, New Jersey Department of Community Affairs
• Corey Wescoe, vice president of acquisitions and entitlements, Pulte Group
• Tom Wright, chairman, NJ State Planning Commission; president and CEO, Regional Plan Association

Public Infrastructure: Fixing the State’s Transportation and Utility Systems to Receive More Growth While Preserving Open Space and Confronting Climate Change

Moderators: Eric Daleo
Principal managing director, Telos Advisors

Adam Zellner
President, Greener by Design

Panelists:

• Samuel Donelson, executive vice president, regional chief executive–U.S. East & Latin America Region, AECOM
• Seth Gerzberg, founder, Active Acquisitions LLC
• Ronnie Hakim, senior vice president, HNTB Corp.
• Rick Mroz, senior director, Archer Public Affairs
• Gagandeep Singh, senior advisor, Real Estate, NJ Transit

Retaining and Attracting Tomorrow’s Residents and Businesses: It’s a Supply and Affordability Problem

Moderator: Ron Ladell
Senior vice president, AvalonBay Communities; chair, executive committee for Rutgers Center for Real Estate

Panelists:

• Michael Avaltroni, president, Fairleigh Dickinson University
• John Boyd Jr., principal, Boyd Co. Inc.
• Wesley Mathews, president and CEO, Choose New Jersey
• Robert Rudin, transaction consulting vice chairman, Cushman & Wakefield
• Michele Siekerka, president and CEO, New Jersey Business & Industry Association

Unplugged: Reflections of Former Top Policymakers Who Were ‘in the Room’

Moderator: Tom Bergeron
Lead writer and editor, ROI-NJ

• Regina Egea, board chair, Garden State Initiative; former chief of staff to Gov. Chris Christie
• Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti; former chief of staff to Gov. Phil Murphy, former commissioner, New Jersey Department of Transportation
• George Helmy, executive vice president, chief external affairs and policy officer, RWJBarnabas Health; former chief of staff to Murphy
• Ralph Izzo, former president, CEO and chairman, PSE&G
• Evan Weiss, CEO, Newark Alliance; former senior advisor to Murphy – Finance and Infrastructure