Nonprofit and public sector tenants took a total of 2.6 million square feet in 2011, approximately the same amount it leased a year earlier, but committed to much larger leases than in the previous year, according to a new report released yesterday by Cassidy Turley.
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Speeches were casually ignored, drinks were spilled and bonds were formed at last Thursday’s 116th annual Real Estate Board of New York Gala, which this year drew an estimated 2,000 brokers, owners, advertising buyers and real estate reporters to the New York Hilton for an evening of conviviality, honorifics and hushed deal making. Among the fray was Commercial Observer staff writer Daniel Geiger, who during the course of the evening saw his stenopad tossed by an irate real estate broker and who unabashedly accosted Studley’s Woody Heller in the hotel’s bathroom, all for the sake of the story. Below, a timeline of gala comings and goings, from the innocuous gossip down to the downright obnoxious. Read More
It was lunchtime at Casa Lever, the high-end restaurant in the iconic Lever House, and Richard Baxter was on his BlackBerry negotiating.
It was a busy year for Mr. Baxter and his colleagues at Jones Lang LaSalle. His four-man team comprised some of the city’s most prominent brokers of large-scale commercial office buildings, and as the Manhattan sales market’s post-recessionary thaw continues, Mr. Baxter estimated that the group had tallied an impressive $1.3 billion in deals this year.
Three days before Christmas, however, it wasn’t one particular skyscraper Mr. Baxter was bargaining over from his plum seat at Casa Lever. In a year-end rush, his group had loose ends to tie up, deals to close and transactions still in the works. And so, on this particular Thursday amid a bustling lunch crowd, Mr. Baxter was not negotiating with a buyer or a building owner, but rather one of his own assistants, whom he was asking to stay late to receive critical documents and to help get the team through the rest of the day.
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The New York City Law Department is renewing a roughly 280,000-square-foot-lease at 100 Church Street, The Commercial Observer has learned.
The department, which represents the city, the Mayor and all city agencies in both civil and criminal litigation cases, occupies several floors at 100 Church Street, a roughly 1.1-million-square-foot building in Lower Manhattan where the office has based its operations since 1978.
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It’s the great white whale of Manhattan retail.
Aside from Walmart, Nordstrom is the store every retail broker in the city dreams of harpooning and reeling into a new home. One prominent broker familiar with the store, the amount of space it needs and the rents it would probably be willing to pay estimates that the commission for handling its lease would be around $10 million.
But like a leviathan lurking beneath the waves, the department store has offered only fleeting glimpses around the city, most notably at several development sites and a few existing assets with the capacity to accommodate its sprawling footprint.
The scuttlebutt nowadays: Nordstrom is contemplating one of two leases, one at the West Side rail yards with the Related Companies or another at the base of Extell Development’s soaring new residential tower now rising at 157 West 57th Street.
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It looks like 3 Columbus Circle will not be a bust after all. SL Green has officially announced a deal for august ad agency Y&R to lease 340,000 square feet in the sickly cerulean tower, according to the Post's Steve Cuozzo. The ad men are renting floors 3 through 10 and 18 and 19, the latter of which will afford lovely views of Central Park. Read More
As senior director of suburbs for Reckson, a division of SL Green, John Barnes is one of the region’s most prolific brokers, in both Westchester and Fairfield counties. Mr. Barnes, 44, spoke with The Commercial Observer about how each region has weathered the downturn, positive indicators and what they’re showing, and the deals in his pipeline.
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Africa Israel USA, the controversial owner and operator of commercial properties across the United States, has entered into a contract to sell 5 Madison Avenue to an undisclosed investor for $165 million.
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If you’ve ever gone shopping in New York City, you’ve likely been an unwitting guest of Jeff Sutton. He is a discreet host, but an expansive one.
Among other properties, he controls: the 33,000-square-foot American Eagle at the corner of Broadway and Houston Street; the 40,000-square-foot Armani flagship in 717 Fifth, soon to house an 18,400-square-foot Dolce & Gabbana; the 20,000-square-foot Abercrombie & Fitch store up the street at 720 Fifth; the 46,000-square-foot American Girl Place down the street at 609 Fifth; 1551 Broadway in Times Square, which includes the four-floor American Eagle Outfitters flagship; the Aeropostale lease at 1515 Broadway; 141 Fifth in the Flatiron, where Cole Haan supplanted a Bath & Body Works; the Polo Ralph Lauren space at 379 West Broadway in Soho; several spots in and around Herald Square, including the Foot Locker House of Hoops, Aeropostale, Aldo, Geox, American Eagle and Esprit; and 747 Madison Avenue, the location of the Valentino flagship. Just last week, he teamed with SL Green, the city’s biggest commercial landlord, on the $136 million purchase of 1552 Broadway, which contains the Times Square TGI Friday’s.
That is just a sampling. Read More
Rothstein Kass & Co. has inked a lease for 88,049 square feet at 1350 Avenue of Americas, marking a significant renewal and expansion for the international accounting firm.
The firm, whose deal was announced yesterday, currently occupies 55,308 square feet on floors 10, 15, and 16. The addition of another 32,741 square feet on floors 9 and 14 will not only allow the company to create two contiguous blocks of floor space but also makes them the largest office tenant in the building, brokers said. With the new long-term lease and coterminous extensions on floors 10 and 15, meanwhile, the tenant will eventually vacate its 16th floor space in 2014. Read More
Joseph Moinian's kingdom was assembled in a flurry of activity over the past decade, like a conquering warlord besieging New York City, overtaking some of the most valuable commercial properties. But like Alexander the Great or Napoleon Bonaparte, he overextended the empire, imperiling much of it when the recession hit. Yet thanks to an unlikely savior in SL Green, Mr. Moinian has managed to hold on to many of his most prized possessions, Read More
The financial services firm ABN AMRO Holdings signed an expansion deal at trophy building 100 Park Avenue that will extend its office space to 32,259 square feet.
The transaction at the SL Green-owned, 825,815-square-foot building will allow the bank to expand from the 20,626 square feet it occupies on the 17th floor to an additional 10,889 square feet on the 23rd. The firm will also take on 744 square feet of non-contiguous storage space, brokers involved with the deal told The Commercial Observer. The 11-year lease term for ABN AMRO’s office’s on the 17th floor is coterminous with its expansion space on the 23rd floor, they added. Read More
It all began, modestly enough, with the relatively simple task of implementing an energy-savings plan across Reckson Associates’ portfolio of 32 buildings in Westchester and Fairfield counties.
A regional architect with Reckson named Jason Black orchestrated a portfolio-wide program that included the installation of L.E.D. exit signs and occupancy sensor devices in private offices. Read More
Rip! SL Green and Jeff Sutton continue their collective tear through New York commercial real estate, contracting to buy the Valentino store at 747 Madison Avenue for nearly $65 million Read More
Lois Weiss at The Post has a sensational real estate scoop for the fashionistas about town: Read More
