Tiffany Lau
Founder & Principal, A P A R T Companies
Tiffany is the Founder & Principal of A P A R T Companies, an advisory, project management, and development firm focused on creative repositioning and redevelopment of commercial real estate in urban markets. Apart provides development advisory and project management services for a range of clients including developers, landlords, and end-users looking to execute innovative projects that activate underutilized spaces and create distinctive and market-making places.
Most recently, Tiffany was an Executive Director and Head of Urban Ecosystems, Asia Pacific for JLL (NYSE: JLL), leading a team to deliver innovative, holistic, and flexible solutions for existing and under-development projects across the region.
Before founding A P A R T, Tiffany was a Management Consultant and member of the in-house dedicated Penn Plaza team at Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO), the largest office owner in New York City, executing development projects across Vornado's 9 million square feet of office, retail and hotel properties within the district around Penn Station - one of the world's busiest transit hubs. District-wide activation strategies included carefully planned improvements to the public realm that garnered multiple design awards for New York City's newest public plaza, which served to anchor ongoing district revitalization and phased redevelopment. Tiffany also oversaw the development and construction of a new 15,000 square foot chef-driven food hall and event space concept, further signaling positive change in a district long characterized by limited food options and lack of open space.
Prior to joining Vornado, Tiffany was a Vice President of Development & Capital Markets at Jamestown Properties, focused on the 17-building, 6.5 million square foot, 30-acre waterfront industrial and mixed-use redevelopment of Industry City, Brooklyn, into a new hub for manufacturing and innovation. While at Jamestown, Tiffany was responsible for development of retail and open space throughout the campus, including a unique food hall showcasing on-site production, landscaped and programmed courtyards, art gallery, campus store, tenant lounge, and other campus-wide amenities and improvements to support leasing, operations, management, and drive future growth.
Under the Bloomberg administration, Tiffany was an Assistant Vice President and Chief of Staff in the Asset Management Group of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where she worked on asset repositioning, leasing, development, and portfolio monetization and disposition projects for the City of New York. Her portfolio included the historic Brooklyn Army Terminal, Hunts Point Food Distribution Center, public markets, and commercial development sites. She also worked as a Financial Analyst in Acquisitions across all asset classes at ING Clarion (now Clarion Partners), and started her real estate career in the Metro NY/NJ Urban Business Unit of Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM), where she was a member of the Land Acquisition and Development team.
Tiffany earned a B.A. in Urban Design and Architecture from New York University, a M.Sc. in Real Estate Development at Columbia University, and is a graduate of the Coro Leadership New York program. She is a former Urban Land Institute (ULI) New York Advisory Board Member, Management Committee Chair of Mission Advancement, and is a member of the National ULI Urban Revitalization Product Council (Gold Flight), and a founding member of the ULI New York and Hong Kong NEXT Committees. She is also a ULI Mentor and helped launch UrbanPlan, ULI’s global high school land use and development program in Hong Kong, serving on the UrbanPlan Steering Committee, and was the first Executive Director for ULI Hong Kong (2017-2021). She is also a Steering Committee member for WalkDVRC, an NGO focused on walkability and civic innovation in Hong Kong. Tiffany has been invited to be a subject matter expert on three ULI Advisory Services Panels focused on repositioning and redevelopment in London, UK for Grosvenor (2012), Buffalo City, South Africa for the World Bank (2014), and Qianmen, Beijing for the Beijing Municipal Government (2018). In 2010, she was appointed as an inaugural Board Member for the Columbia GSAPP Alumni Association, and currently serves as a Class Representative for the Columbia MSRED Program. She is a thought leader and frequent public speaker, appearing at industry events & conferences, podcasts & market forums in the US & Asia.