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Tom Acitelli

Tom Acitelli has been a senior editor at The New York Observer since 2006. Follow him on Twitter at @tacitelli and email him at tacitelli at observer dot com.

By Tom Acitelli 9/14/11 12:10am

An Arena Grows in Brooklyn

Hmmm... do I take the pay cut?

Bounced from Brooklyn? Prokhorov’s Prospective Presidential Run Poses Questions

On Sept. 2, Mikhail Prokhorov, billionaire owner of the soon-to-be-Brooklyn Nets, announced he would consider a run for the Russian presidency this winter if the political party he created, Right Cause, does well in parliamentary elections in December. (The Transom first learned of this from a friend who is a journalist in Moscow, and confirmed it with English-language reports of Mr. Prokhorov’s comments.)

So, if Mr. Prokhorov, the central-casting projection of modern muscular Russia, does, in fact, edge out his friend Vladimir Putin or Mr. Putin’s hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, what will it mean for the borough’s b-ball? Can one man be the leader of a superpower and the owner of a powerhouse at the same time? Read More

By Guelda Voien 1:28pm

office space

Tara Stacom of Cushman & Wakefield.

The Fall Season in Downtown

“I’m more bullish today than I was in 2007,” said Cushman & Wakefield’s Tara Stacom of  1 World Trade and the outlook for the 1,776-foot tower that will offer 3.1 million square feet of Class A office space. “I did not think one of the first tenants would be a million-plus feet.”

Signing the lease with Condé Nast in May of this year was, for lack of a less hackneyed term, a game-changer for downtown Manhattan, especially as the area emerges not only from the Great Recession but from the malaise that characterized so much of the area since 9/11. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 12:53pm

the sit-down

mitchrudin_1

Mitch Rudin’s Quarterly Report

In June, Mitch Rudin took the reins as Brookfield Office Properties’s president and C.E.O. of U.S. Commercial Operations following news that Ric Clark would relinquish his role as president of the Canadian firm, which controls downtown’s World Financial Center, while remaining on as C.E.O. of corporate operations. Last week, Mr. Rudin, 58, assessed his progress.

The Commercial Observer: So, why don’t you assess your progress over your first 60 days at Brookfield?

Mr. Rudin: It’s been terrific. I wouldn’t quite call this my midterm report card, but I’ve been here for two months, and to the extent that there have been any surprises they’ve all been pleasant.

 

What kind of surprises? Read More

2 By Jotham Sederstrom 10:57am

power broker

Mr. Lieber joined Silverstein in 2003.

Silverstein’s Janno Lieber on the Progress at Ground Zero

Uniformed men milled about, waiting for Leon Panetta, the newly appointed Secretary of Defense, to embark on his morning tour of 7 World Trade Center. At the same time, the leader of one of the city’s most powerful trade unions was being greeted as he crossed from the building’s elevator bank to a floor model of the World Trade Center site. Heavyset and stoic, that labor leader was there to address the members of Helmets to Hardhats, an organization that assists soldiers in their transition from battlefields to construction sites.

A few hours earlier, Mayor Bloomberg had arrived in Lower Manhattan along with his own entourage, calling for the end to “Ground Zero” as the shorthand to describe what, over the course of a decade, has changed from a pile of smoldering ashes to the early metallic seeds of a transit hub, a memorial site and a massive complex of skyscrapers. Read More

1 By Jotham Sederstrom 9/12/11 4:06pm

lease beat

coffeebean

High-End Coffee Outfit Signs with Harbor

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which is a purveyor of bowling balls (seriously, though, they sell coffee), has signed a 1,500-square-foot retail lease on the ground floor of 1412 Broadway.

The deal at the base of the 24-story, Harbor Group International-owned building brings occupancy to 95 percent occupancy, brokers told The Commercial Observer. The company, which operates at 750 locations worldwide, has, until now, not peddled its iced coffee, green teas or signature brews from a Manhattan store. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 9/12/11 4:00pm

lease beat

100 Ave of Amer (1)

Finance Firm Expands in Trinity’s 100 A of A

Two Sigma Investments, an international finance and technology firm, has inked a five-year lease at 100 Avenue of the Americas that will allow the company to expand from its current 38,332 square feet, brokers told The Commercial Observer. Read More

3 By Tom Acitelli 9/08/11 5:32pm

Elsewhere

The Closing: Doorman Debate; 3 Columbus Circle; Night at the Apthorp

Jonathan Miller breaks down Manhattan housing, pre- and post- 9/11 and Lehman Brothers. [Journal]

How the Lower Manhattan skyline changed—slowly—over the last decade. [Curbed NY]

3 Columbus Circle ready for its close-up. [Crain's]

Mayor Bloomberg's ex- goes to contract at One Kenmare. [NY Post]

Ralph Gardner Jr. sleeps with the Apthorp, tells. [Journal]

Resolved: the doorman is pointless. [Real Deal]

Avenue U out of juice because of a fire. [Sheepshead Bites]

And this Fort Greene house made us pause and stare wistfully out the window. [Brownstoner]

By Sam Chandan 9/08/11 10:55am

the lead indicator

A winter of discontent coming?

Taking Economic Stock at Summer’s End

The summer our discontent behind us, the weight of inaction threatens anew. It is readily apparent from the most recent data that economic growth and labor market trends slowed markedly during July and August. Yet precious little has been accomplished over this same period to seriously assess or offset the deficiencies in the recovery.

Absent politicians in Washington calming down, or new private or public sources of stimulus, the near- and medium-term outlook for the economy remains clouded. Would that policymakers could approach the growth and employment conundrum with the same zeal—and occasional ferocity—as they approached the budget debates over the past few months, we might be in a stronger position two years after the recession reached its putative end. Read More

By Tom Acitelli 9/06/11 8:14pm

Our City Since

The Fresh Direct fridge goes here.

Glass Action: The Condo Since 9/11

One winter evening in 2006, host Martin Bashir’s voice intoned over the opening of Nightline: “Meet the brash, young real estate assassin, selling lavish dream apartments to clients with money to burn.”

The TV screen bled to an earnest-looking Michael Shvo. “When you see a photo of the New York skyline,” the 32-year-old informed us, “these are buildings I made happen.”

And what made Mr. Shvo happen? Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 9/06/11 4:00pm

lease beat

Upscale Footwear Walks Into 807 Washington

Fashionable club-goers and maybe even a few hog butchers will be able to navigate the brick roads of the meatpacking district in style now that Nicholas Kirkwood, the upscale designer footwear brand has inked a 1,572-square-foot retail deal at 807 Washington Street.

Located between Gansevoort and Horatio streets, the ground-floor boutique is scheduled to open by winter of 2012, broker said. As with most space—office and retail alike—asking prices have risen in the area since the High Line park opened two years ago, although specific prices at 807 Washington Street were not immediately available. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 9/06/11 11:55am

the sit-down

Nocera_1

Trumpeting Change on Third

Since 2009, Gerard Nocera, Michael Reid and John Monaco have helmed Herald Square Properties, an investment and operating company that has, since launching, provided asset management services for more than 800,000 square feet of office properties in Manhattan. The former COO of SL Green, Mr. Nocera, 54, spoke about the revitalization program at the Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue and the company’s efforts to acquire new property. Read More

1 By Jotham Sederstrom 9/06/11 9:36am

power broker

Mr. Farkas started Metropolitan Realty Associates in 2001.

The Recycler

In its heyday, the manufacturing plant in Garden City, Long Island, housed laboratories for DuPont Pharmaceuticals before it went on to harbor chemists with a competing drug maker, Bristol Myers Squibb. But by 2004, the 188,500-square-foot complex of two buildings on Stewart Avenue and Endo Boulevard—a street named for the pharmaceutical firm that originally occupied the plant in 1964—had become a casualty of new compliancy standards by the F.D.A. In other words, the cost of upgrading the complex to conform was no longer in the best interest of the owner or even Bristol Myers Squibb, which relocated.

Enter Joe Farkas, a former CB Richard Ellis broker who, as president of the Jericho-based Metropolitan Realty Associates, has mined real estate gold from older assets, like the Garden City site, that have outlived their original use. Read More

3 By Tom Acitelli 9/02/11 6:40pm

Elsewhere

The Closing: Super-Late Labor Day Weekend Edition

Perhaps the most articulate review ever of a carousel: Jean Nouvel's design for Jane Walentas. [NY Times]

It's First Avenue's moment to shine because Second Avenue's so terrible right about now. [Journal]

Five rats go after Jay-Z near Madison Square Park. [Curbed NY]

The $90 million mansion on East 80th Street is off the rental market and, we assume, headed for a mighty, mighty price-chop. [Curbed NY]

Catholic priests sell to Jewish retirement home in Riverdale... there's a walks-into-a-bar joke here somewhere. [Daily News]

The story of 5 Franklin Place and its foreclosure. [NY Times]

'Stoner checks in on new studios rising at Steiner. [Brownstoner]

The Earl of Sandwich is going to eat New York City. [Crain's]

 

Housekeeping note: We will be blogging only sporadically on Monday. See you in the autumn.

 

10 By Tom Acitelli 8/29/11 8:56am

Book Review

Giuseppe Garibaldi, formerly of Staten Island. (Photo: nndb.com)

Explaining All the Italian-Americans in New York

In November 1853, a 46-year-old candle-maker set sail from Staten Island for Europe, where he had been one of the most famous soldiers since the fall of Napoleon 40 years before. Giuseppe Garibaldi was already one-half on his way to becoming “the Hero of Two Worlds” of legend, as he had the previous decade fought for Uruguayan independence in South America. His fighting on behalf of his native soil, however, had not gone so spectacularly. Read More