Dana Rubinstein | The New York Observer

Office Market Martin Luthers

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:50:01 -0500

There’s a prevailing narrative in New York real estate, and it goes something like this: Lehman Brothers’ collapse sent the Manhattan office market into a horrifying and precipitous tailspin. Commercial tenants, fearing for their survival, fled in droves. Months of deathly inactivity followed. Then the fright passed. And the waiting game ensued. Tenants, their brush with the unknown having scared them from profligacy into prudence, waited patiently for the market to bottom. That happened...

Exactly What They Want

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:35:33 -0500

Tiffany & Co., the retailer whose flagship store, packed as it is with precious metals and rare stones, exerts a seemingly magnetic pull on both Fifth Avenue tourist swarms and men seeking to please their bauble-headed brides, is looking for new office space.

The firm is working with brokers at Studley to find more than 200,000 square feet of office space, according to an industry source. We imagine there are countless landlords slavering for the...

Brick Throwing! Law Prof Questions CUNY’s Deal with Citibank

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:40:45 -0500

On Saturday, Oct. 14, a CUNY law professor named Dinesh Khosla sent a very polite memo to the “law-school community,” titled, “Our New Building.”

The memo wondered why CUNY, a public university financed by taxpayers, is paying a decidedly above-market price ($155 million) for its new, 225,000-square foot home at Citigroup’s 2 Court Square in Long Island City.

The memo isn’t going to win Mr. Khosla (whose bio on CUNY’s Web site describes him as, “A...

Gilding the Lobby Lily

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:21:46 -0500

The frugality fad is fading fast.

Bidders are dropping multimillions on Warhols at Sotheby’s; Goldman Sachs wives are preparing holiday shopping extravaganzas in anticipation of record bonuses; and in the realm of commercial real estate, tenants are spending more than $100 a square foot on office space (in which to hang their newly acquired artwork?).

Right now, an Italian Bank is negotiating for offices atop Mort Zuckerman’s monumental white marble GM Building for more than...

CUNY’s New Community College

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:13:36 -0500

The City University of New York is slogging ahead with plans for a new, experimental community college, and has enlisted brokerage Newmark Knight Frank to find it a temporary home.

The broker leading the hunt is Howard Kesseler, a Bowdoin-educated executive managing director who has grown popular with the education crowd, having represented both MetSchools and the Department of Education in their Manhattan peregrinations.

Mr. Kesseler (pictured) wouldn’t comment for this story. In an Oct. 15...

Inside Iran's Fifth Avenue Skyscraper

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:07:23 -0500

Citigroup, Joseph Abboud, Kurt Salmon Associates, Pali Capital, and the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation are just a few of the bold-faced names who may have been paying rent to the Iranian government for their offices in a Fifth Avenue skyscraper, according to real estate sources, the tenants' own Web sites, and a complaint filed Thursday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The U.S. Attorney’s office alleges that the Alavi...

Trader Joe's Stakes Claim on Sixth Avenue

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:51:15 -0500

Trader Joe's, oh ye of endless lines, Hawaiian shirts, eerily pleasant staff, and to-die-for chipotle-flavored hummus, finally you're coming to Sixth Avenue!

The store has signed a lease for the retail space at the handsome Mattel Building at 675 Sixth Avenue, the storefront formerly occupied by Barnes & Noble, according to an industry source. Trader Joe's, as is its notoriously press-unfriendly wont, declined to comment for this story, except to remind The Observer that Trader...

Oil-Rich UAE Buys Distressed East 46th Street Site

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:57:28 -0500

The United Arab Emirates has dropped a princely sum on a stalled development site in midtown east.

In an odd denouement to a development story that began in 2007, the Middle Eastern nation has paid $44.7 million to take the property at 313-317 East 46th Street, between First and Second avenues, off the hands of seller and real estate developer Alexander Gurevich. Property records indicate Mr. Gurevich bought the site from Gary Barnett's Extell Development for $40.95...

Battle of the Holland Tunnel

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:54:59 -0500

It was Oct. 13, and inside the wood-paneled lobby of the Newport Office Center, which rises like a glass punctuation mark from the Jersey City shore of the Hudson River, Governor Jon Corzine was gleefully announcing a huge score in the Garden State's long-simmering battle with Manhattan for office tenants.

The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation had signed a long-term lease to relocate 1,600 of its employees from 55 Water Street in Lower Manhattan to...

Big-Time Fight Over St. Regis Retail; Chera Cries 'Conspiracy' in Lawsuit

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:16:49 -0500

Crown Acquisitions chairman Stanley Chera, owner of 15 million square feet of real estate, may have recently added a few of New York's most valuable retail properties to his portfolio: three exclusive Fifth Avenue storefronts occupied by Bottega Veneta, Pucci and De Beers. But that hasn't stopped him from accusing his onetime business associates of a Machiavellian "civil conspiracy" to cut him out of the group that was initially vying for ownership of the...

It Depends on What Your Definition of Manufacturing Is

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:27:45 -0500

A software development company is in contract to buy two commercial condominiums in a Time Equities building, and it’s able to do so thanks largely to a bit of lexicographical acrobatics buried deep within the 2009 stimulus plan.
In short, the verb “to manufacture” no longer means what you think it does, at least within the context of the “Nimble: Small Issuance Bond Program,” and that, oddly enough, has bearing on the commercial condominium...

Scotiabank Leaving Lower Manhattan?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:32:13 -0500

Scotiabank may trace its origins to Halifax—a city synonymous with harbors and boundless horizons—and it may have chosen One Liberty Plaza, on the Hudson River, as its longtime New York home, but that doesn’t mean the bank is water-bound.

The Canadian institution has hired CB Richard Ellis broker Bruce Surry to find new offices of about 120,000 square feet, according to industry sources.

Mr. Surry declined to comment on precisely where Scotiabank is looking, or on...

SoHo Properties Buys Chelsea Building for $45.7 M.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:45:22 -0500

SoHo Properties has invested in Chelsea.

Sharif El-Gamal, chairman and CEO of the real estate investment group, has dropped $45.7 million on the property at 31 West 27th Street, which PropertyShark describes as a 12-story, 108,594-square-foot office building.

"We just bought it for the income," Mr. El-Gamal told The Observer. "It's got great long-term leases, and the financing was really attractive. We have five years at a very attractive interest rate, and it's probably the best B...

Citing Albany Dysfunction, Rudin Says No to a Senator in Need

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:32:21 -0500

Bill Rudin, the civic-minded real estate billionaire, admired in New York for his family’s remarkable success, apparent functionality, and steadfast devotion to New York civic life, made a startling declaration on Wednesday morning at the Harvard Club.

“I got a call the other day from an Albany politician,” said Mr. Rudin, the chairman of the Association for a Better New York, speaking in his capacity as the head of one of New York real estate's...

Serenity Pow! Lawsuit Wallops Once-Serenely Confident Setai Condo

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:32:13 -0500

On Oct. 25, 2007, in a typically optimistic New York Sun column entitled, “All Signs Pointing Up in Downtown Manhattan,” Michael Stoler used the Setai at 40 Broad Street as one of many examples of the florescence of Lower Manhattan.

Josh Zamir, son of 40 Broad developer Asher Roshan Zamir, told Mr. Stoler that a condo buyer had agreed to the highest price ever for a Financial District condo, in this case the project's penthouse: $1,800 a...

Desigual? No, I Didn’t! Spanish Clothier Opening in Herald Square

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:13:53 -0500

Desigual, the Barcelona-based clothier whose use of geometric shapes and squiggly lines resembles something a preternaturally talented teenager might concoct, is opening a store in Herald Square, its first New York storefront (indeed, its first American storefront) outside of Soho.

Desigual has signed a lease for the old Baker Shoes retail space at 362 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street, according to industry sources. This just months after Desigual took the old Kira Plastinina space at...

Does This Storefront Make Me Look Fat?

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:18:30 -0500

In the age of designer jeans, it's hard to get excited about Levi's, maker of sensibly crafted and moderately priced denim wear that appeals to your mother.

But in this, the age of the frugal shopper, Levi's is apparently sensing an opportunity. The clothier is said to be working with PBS Real Estate's Laura Pomerantz to find new storefronts in Manhattan in which to hawk its 501 Boyfriends, its Low Skinny 531s and the like.

Ms....

Gural Sells Stake in Flatiron Building (Updated)

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:33:44 -0500

Newmark Knight Frank Chairman Jeffrey Gural and his partners have sold a stake in the Flatiron Building for $51.8 million, according to city records dated Oct. 28.

The buyer is listed as Michelangelo Flatiron Building Investment LLC, with an address at 805 Third Avenue. The LLC is 100 percent owned by the Michelangelo Fondo, which, in turn, is 100 percent owned by the Sorgente Group, headed in the United States by Veronica Mainetti. Sorgente already holds a...

GM Building Naming Rights Officially Up for Grabs

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:12:15 -0500

The naming rights for the GM Building, one of the rarest opportunities in New York real estate, are officially in play.

During last week's third-quarter investors call, Boston Properties president Douglas Linde included in his prepared remarks the following: "We can report that we were able to retain General Motors in 114,000 square feet for 10 years at 767 Fifth Avenue, the GM Building. As part of the lease, we recaptured the right to name the building in...

Avon's New HQ! Mega-Lease Out at 777 Third

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:40:33 -0400

Avon employees who commute on the F train, be forewarned. The makeup company known for its eponymous, door-knocking ladies, and, of course, for its $10 billion in annual revenue, looks to be ditching the West Side for the East, with a 15-year lease out for a new, 250,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters at the William Kaufman Organization’s shiny glass skyscraper at 777 Third Avenue, according to industry sources. If finalized this year, it will be one...

There Are Bad Landlord-Tenant Disputes and Then There Are Execrable Ones!

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:28:55 -0400

Last Wednesday, Oct. 21, on the third floor of the low-rent Long Island City offices of Vantage Properties, Neil Rubler’s affordable-housing empire, one of his property managers received an interesting call. A gentleman who had signed a lease for an apartment and was scheduled to move in this month wanted out.

Mr. Rubler belongs by marriage to the esteemed Olnick clan, whose Lenox Terrace houses Congressman Rangel’s famous rent-controlled apartments, as well as Governor Paterson,...

Avon Close to Mega-Deal at 777 Third Avenue

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:15:25 -0400

Avon, the make-up company known for its eponymous ladies, and, of course, its $10 billion in annual revenue, has a 15-year lease out for new, 250,000-square-foot U.S.headquarters at the William Kaufman Organization's shiny glass skyscraper at 777 Third Avenue, according to an industry source.

Neither Jon Zuckerman, of CB Richard Ellis, nor Dale Schlather, of Cushman & Wakefield, who are co-brokering the deal for Avon, nor Jones Lang LaSalle's Peter Riguardi, who represents the landlord,...

Cablevision Renews at Moinian’s 530 Fifth

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:50:58 -0400

His reputation for money troubles notwithstanding, Joe Moinian has managed to hold on to a marquee tenant.

The Dolan family’s Cablevision has renewed for seven years the entire sixth and 17th floors, totaling nearly 45,000 square feet, at Mr. Moinian’s 26-story 530 Fifth Avenue.

The Bethpage, Long Island–based Cablevision, which owns the Knicks and Newsday, uses the Fifth Avenue space to house advertising teams.

Howard Kesseler, of Newmark Knight Frank, represented Mr. Moinian in talks with Cushman...

Newmark Knight Frank Pounds Its Chest

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:46:24 -0400

Jimmy Kuhn, president of brokerage Newmark Knight Frank, was in a chipper mood on Monday morning. And who could blame him? New York commercial real estate may be about as cadaverous a field as New York media, but Newmark has been winning some notable battles in the ceaseless blood feud between city brokerages.

Newmark has poached yet another building agency from one of its rivals, winning the leasing responsibilities for the Blackstone Group’s 34-story tower...

Katz Picks Another Tenants’ Market to Hunt

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:47:41 -0400

In the remarkably similar real estate climate of 1991, landlord Harry Macklowe went all out to lure Katz Media Group to his new building at 125 West 55th Street, even offering to take on Katz’s remaining 170,000-square-foot lease at One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, though it had five years left on its term.

Katz was sufficiently enticed, and that year signed a lease of about the same size at the glass-clad 55th Street scraper.

Now that Boston...

Mintz Levin Re-ups for 85K Feet in Speyers’ 666 Third

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:28:39 -0400

On the residential front, the world may seem like it’s collapsing for Tishman Speyer (read: Stuyvesant Town), but in its more traditional role as an office landlord, things could be worse.

To wit, attorneys at Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC have signed on for another 14 years of 85,000 square feet at Tishman Speyer’s Chrysler Center at 666 Third Avenue. Mark Weiss, vice chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, represented the law firm...

New Jewish School to Rise on West End Avenue

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:04:49 -0400

The Abraham Joshua Heschel School – a Jewish private school named for the late theological luminary (the same theologian after whom Missouri officials recently wanted to rename a highway as a slap in the face to the group of neo-Nazis who maintain it) – is building a more than 120,000-square-foot school on 61st Street and West End Avenue.

On Oct. 14, the school filed plans with the Department of Buildings for a new, nine-story building at 246 West...

Win an Office for a Year!

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:50:06 -0400

Yes, that office to the right, or something quite like it, could be yours for a year! For free!

The clever folks at Regus, a company that specializes in short-term office leases, have decided to launch a sweepstakes. The lucky winner will get a choice of office in one of Regus' 18 Manhattan locations for a full year, free of charge.

If this sounds like some cynical cry for attention, well, perhaps it is. But it's...

Feels Like 2007 in Here

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:46:25 -0400

“I think every hotel has a psyche.”

That was Jason Pomeranc, who, as co-founder of Thompson Hotels, has fashioned himself New York’s innkeeper to the image-conscious. Last Friday afternoon, he arrived promptly to his newish hotel in New York, the 100-room Smyth Tribeca at 85 West Broadway, dressed for the part: rumpled and rough shaven, dark hair gelled back, revealing a face whose close-set brown eyes recalled Patrick Swayze, and whose full cheeks recalled Tim...

Harry Macklowe Tells a Joke, Part II

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:08:34 -0400

And he does it again.

Back in July, developer Harry Macklowe made his debut on the very small screen, telling a knee-slapper of a joke for the ever-amusing Web site, OldJewsTellingJokes.com.

Now he's done it again. Or, more precisely, the Web site, whose makers taped Mr. Macklowe telling multiple jokes a while back, has, after a three-month break, posted a second Macklowe howler.

In this bit, Mr. Macklowe regales the audience with the following:

Sam and Becky are...

Mosler’s Act II

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:17:43 -0400

On Oct. 15, employees at Cushman & Wakefield received an internal memo from CEO Bruce Mosler, which began, “To my colleagues: I am very pleased to announce that as of January 1, 2010, I will transition to Co-Chairman of the Board, alongside John C. Cushman III. The Board of Directors has established a search committee to select a new CEO, and I will continue in that capacity until a successor is named.”

Few were surprised....

Amusement Shark

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:21:54 -0400

In June, Six Flags, owner of 20 amusement parks (frankly, the notion of willfully getting on machines that simulate death has never much struck us as particularly “amusing”) across North America, declared bankruptcy.

This bankruptcy wasn’t one of those out-of-the-blue deals. It was what they call a pre-negotiated bankruptcy, the final phase in a plan to restructure Six Flags’ troubled finances and unburden itself of a staggering $1.8 billion in debt.
And so, at the...

Tenant Rap

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:27:53 -0400

The Commercial Observer: A lot has been written recently about how the leasing market has picked up. Is it merely pent-up demand being unleashed?
Mr. Colacino: The market is very striated now. You have large-scale bank spaces that are sitting on the market and will continue to decline in price and are not going to be leased very easily or in the foreseeable future. In the very high end, you’ve got no activity whatsoever,...

Dumbo Art Space St. Ann’s Mulls Manhattan Move

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:52:39 -0400

On Oct. 9, at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo, Rosanne Cash sang songs her father, Johnny, recommended she learn 36 years ago, in a concert marking the venue’s 30 years of existence. Ms. Cash also performed there in 2006. If she reappears in another three years, she will return to a venue in an entirely new location. Maybe even in Manhattan.
St. Ann’s Warehouse, the art space that has paid precisely $0 in rent...

Cushman & Wakefield CEO Mosler's Note to Staff

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:53:02 -0400

The Observer has obtained the memo departing CEO Bruce Mosler emailed Thursday to the Cushman & Wakefield staff. Earlier Thursday, The Observer broke the news that Mr. Mosler, after nearly five years as president and CEO of the commercial real estate brokerage, would assume the co-chairmanship of the board.

The memo is below:

To my colleagues: I am very pleased to announce that as of January 1, 2010, I will transition to Co-Chairman of...

Leona Helmsley Trust Sheds Two Manhattan Properties

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:25:06 -0400

The estate holding the assets of the one-time hotelier and reputed Queen of Mean Leona Helmsley sold two properties on Manhattan's East Side on Oct. 1, according to city records.

The properties in question are a ground-floor 4,178-square-foot retail condominium at 760 Third Avenue and the nearby 144 East 48th Street, a 114,500-square-foot apartment building between Third and Lexington avenues. A partnership with principals in Mamaroneck and Los Angeles bought the two properties for a...

Litigious MoFo Looking for 200K Feet

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:32:36 -0400

Morrison & Foerster—the international San Francisco–based law firm that takes a twisted sort of pleasure in its nickname, MoFo (the firm’s URL is mofo.com, just one “s” away from an entirely different kind of Web site)—has hired CB Richard Ellis to find it new office space in Manhattan, according to industry sources.

Right now, Morrison & Foerster is housed in about 160,000 square feet at the utterly vanilla-looking 44-story, 2 million–square–foot tower at 1290 Avenue...

How Keen Is Manhattan Valley?

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:10:51 -0400

An unexpected alliance between a powerful developer and a neighborhood retirement home is causing an uproar in the Manhattan Valley section of the famously ornery Upper West Side.

Enigmatic developer Joseph Chetrit and Jewish Home Lifecare, which has a campus at 120 West 106th Street, between Amsterdam and Columbus avenues, have decided to swap properties.

In exchange for its 106th Street campus, the retirement home will receive both cash and the right to develop a 22-story...

Sales? More Like Snails!

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:04:07 -0400

The commercial real estate cataclysm has proven false yet another real estate truism: the long-held belief that even in the most desertlike of investment sales markets, at least 1.6 percent of the 27,649 elevator and walk-up apartment buildings and retail condominiums and office buildings in Manhattan will sell every year, thanks to unavoidable (and generally unfortunate) reasons like death, divorce and the dissolution of business partnerships.

No longer.

“We’re going to break through that 1.6 percent...

Cote D'Ivoire Drops $8 M. on New East Side Offices

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:28:58 -0400

The government of Ivory Coast, a country where nearly half the population makes do with less than $1.36 a day, has dropped $8 million on new offices for its Permanent Mission to the United Nations, according to city deeds.

Alcide Djedje, the mission's ambassador, signed the deed on Sept. 30 for a commercial condominium at 800 Second Avenue, an 18-story office tower between First and Second avenues owned by Philips International.

The Ivory Coast is the...

Eliot Spitzer Personally Sells Murray Hill Garage for $10.28 M.

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:15:57 -0400

For all the talk of a return to politics, former Governor Eliot Spitzer remains ensconced in his family's muscular real estate business.

Last week, Mr. Spitzer sold a parking garage underneath The Corinthian condomium built by his dad Bernie in 1987. The price: $10.275 million, an apparently handsome deal for the governor-turned-real estate mogul.

This follows his purchase over the summer of a coveted Washington, D.C., office building for $180 million.

Mr. Spitzer did not respond to...

Memories of the Way We Were … Hopeful Stats a Year Since Lehman

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:30:04 -0400

There are lots of memories—many of them apparently traumatic—in that glass-encased and forever under-heated back room at Michael’s, the midtown power lunch-counter where Cushman & Wakefield executives host quarterly market briefings for the press.

“It’s hard to believe, but it was about a year ago when we came here, and we didn’t know what was going on,” reflected Ken McCarthy, Cushman’s managing director for research, on Tuesday morning.

Mr. McCarthy was right. It kind of is...

WNET Looks to Go Dark at 450 West 33rd Street

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:19:28 -0400

Channel 13 has hired a broker to dispose of its cavernous offices on the far West Side, and to find it new offices that measure roughly half the size of the old ones.

Right now, Channel 13, also known as WNET, produces public TV like Worldfocus and Bill Moyers Journal in its 200,000-square-foot studios and offices within the 1.6 million–square–foot media megalopolis at 450 West 33rd Street, the building that Broadway Partners bought for an...

Sturner Recapitalizes 1412 Broadway

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:41:45 -0400

“We are happy to report that we have concluded the purchase and recapitalization of 1412 Broadway,” began a recent email sent by Murray Hill Properties owner Norman Sturner to his investors.

This is the 400,000-square-foot, Class B garment-district building at 39th Street that Mr. Sturner and his partners bought for $177.5 million in December 2006, right at the height of the frenzied real estate market.

After searching for new investors from within the ranks of New...

Leases Pending for Part of Midtown’s Biggest Sublease Space

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:42:04 -0400

Two new tenants are chipping away at midtown’s largest block of sublease space.

Both the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and law firm Cozen O’Connor have leases pending for a total of three floors, or 69,000 of the 400,000 square feet that JPMorgan Chase is trying to get off its books at the coveted 277 Park Avenue, according to three industry sources.

The Banking Group has a lease out for one of 277 Park’s 23,000-square-foot...

Dawn Over Commercial Manhattan?

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:58:19 -0400

Colliers ABR director of research Robert Sammons isn’t some sort of sunny-eyed optimist whose overly cheery outlook immediately transforms horrific markets into “challenging” ones, or plummeting rents into “competitive asking prices.”

So it’s kind of meaningful when Mr. Sammons puts out an optimistic report. Which is exactly what he’s done.

After leading his Manhattan Monthly with a pointed reminder that the market will not be truly peachy anytime soon -- Class A vacancy rates climbed in September...

Mazel Tov! Young Rabbi Inks Deal For Soho’s Only Synagogue

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:31:49 -0400

Soho has a shul.

After four years of wandering in the desert of New York real estate, a 32-year-old rabbi who employs a modern aesthetic to attract the neighborhood’s hip, and often lapsed, Jewish set has finally found a semi-permanent home in the five-story, red-brick building at 43 Crosby Street.

Rabbi Dovi Scheiner signed the 12-year lease on Sept. 15—nearly eight years to the day after 9/11, which was also, in a rather unfortunate happenstance, his...

Insurance Firm Inks 109K-Foot Deal in Trumps’ 40 Wall

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:42:24 -0400

After scouring Lower Manhattan for office space, and even venturing across the East River to check out the compellingly priced digs at Bruce Ratner’s MetroTech (compelling, but not compelling enough), Country-Wide Insurance Company has decided to stay put at 40 Wall Street, signing a long-term lease renewal for a stunning 109,000 square feet in what is a largely moribund downtown market.

(Nota bene: The third-generation, family-owned property-casualty insurance company Country-Wide is entirely distinct from...

Hank Greenberg’s I-Firm Takes 120K Feet in Zuckerman’s 399 Park

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:37:16 -0400

The investment firm belonging to Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, of AIG notoriety, last week signed a new, meaty lease for 120,000 square feet of old Lehman Brothers office space at 399 Park Avenue.

C. V. Starr & Co. already has 20,000 square feet of offices at 399 Park, so this new lease is something of a mega-expansion, and also something of a consolidation, as the firm will also be relocating employees from about 90,000 square feet...

Reader’s Digest Wants 100K Feet

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:01:46 -0400

Reader’s Digest, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has hired Cushman & Wakefield to find about 100,000 square feet of new office space, according to industry sources.

The media conglomerate, which publishes 94 magazines worldwide, including the eponymous Reader’s Digest, has offices “all over the place,” as one source put it. “All over the place” includes offices in Chappaqua, Westchester, as well as more than 70,000 square feet at the Sapirs’ 260 Madison...