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GM Building

1 By Matt Chaban 10/07/11 5:38pm

Tales of Retail

Two American corporate giants. (MacRumors)

Hip to Be Square: How Harry Macklowe and Steve Jobs Built the Iconic Apple Cube

It is a POPS done right.

The Apple Cube on Fifth Avenue managed to transform a windswept plaza at one of the busiest intersections in Manhattan into a destination known the world over—one that became a shrine to its creator when Steve Jobs passed away earlier this week. The Journal's Eliot Brown (an Observer alum!) talked with reclusive developer Harry Macklowe about how the cube came to be. Like all things Apple, it wasn't his idea but Jobs'. Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 11/17/09 9:21pm

Gilding the Lobby Lily

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 Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 11/02/09 12:12pm

GM Building Naming Rights Officially Up for Grabs

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 Read More

By Staff 11/02/09 12:12pm

GM Building Naming Rights Officially Up for Grabs

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 Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 9/28/09 10:28pm

GM Picks GM Building

General Motors’ torturous search for a new home in New York City has finally reached an end. And, oh, what an anticlimactic end it is.

General Motors has signed a 114,300-square-foot, 10-year lease renewal at, you guessed it, Boston Properties’ General Motors Building, at 767 Fifth Avenue, the white-marble shaft that has borne its name since Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 8/25/09 8:06pm

The 10 Most Expensive Buildings, Revisited

In April 2007, during those blindered days of economic bluster, The Observer published an article naming New York’s 10 most expensive towers, according to prominent real estate professionals. They agreed on the most valuable single building: the GM Building. That rocket of marble and black glass, considered then and now the most coveted skyscraper Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 2/24/09 10:49pm

Retail Power Brokering, 2009

Last month, Robert Futterman, one of the most prominent and powerful names in Manhattan retail, sent out a press release touting his venerable eponymous brokerage’s latest blockbuster deal: “a 525-square-foot lease with Joe - The Art of Coffee at 514 Columbus Avenue.”

If square footage isn’t your vernacular, that’s about the Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 1/21/09 12:10am

Grand Slam! No More $1K a Foot For Trophies

At some particularly fantastical point in the run-up to the commercial real estate implosion, it became commonplace for one square foot of high-end office space in Manhattan to sell for $1,000. Put another way, one square inch of space—barely enough room to accommodate a buyer’s little toe—would sell for $6.94.

In June 2006, the Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 12/16/08 11:43pm

Shine Off Trophy Tower Asking Rents

No tower is immune from the ravages of the ever deepening economic collapse. Not even Manhattan’s so-called trophy towers, known as such because their outrageous prestige and sky-high rents render them must-have items among top investors.

So concludes Jones Lang LaSalle, which gave The Observer its most recent, and still unreleased, 2008 Skyline Review. Read More