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Daniel Edward Rosen

By Daniel Edward Rosen 5/15 2:48pm

the sit-down

Albert Price.

The Heat Seeker: Blesso Properties’ Albert Price on the Next Big Nabe

How does a small-town boy from Duxbury, Mass., predict what the next big neighborhood in New York will be? Albert Price, the newly named president and chief operating officer of Blesso Properties, has spent his 20-year career developing commercial, residential and multifamily properties in areas that he believes will be deemed the Big Apple’s next hot spot. The Commercial Observer spoke to Mr. Price, about the challenges of starting a new development and his excitement about a hotel project in Panama. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 1:20pm

Daily Transom

Dance like no one is watching (photo credit: Ken Goodman)

Divorce Courting: Adventures at the First Ever “Start Over Smart” Divorce Expo

The first woman The Transom met at the divorce expo was an attractive dental hygienist from Staten Island who once walked in on her then-husband as he was engaged in a ménage à trois with her two best friends.

“Most girls would have really been devastated,” said Lisa Slayback, a bubbly 33-year-old with flowing blond hair and a perky smile. “I just went out and slept with somebody he worked with.” Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 4/03 1:23pm

art crime

Mihaly "Mike" Kovacsevics

Mihaly “Mike” Kovacsezics, Scoundrel of Washington Street, Gets Up To 9 Years of State Time

TriBeCa super and career conman (and former FBI informant) Mihaly Kovacsezics was sentenced to three to nine years of state prison for stealing jewelry and paintings from the Washington Street building he worked in, Manhattan prosecutors announced today.

Mr. Kovacsezics, whose long and strange criminal past was featured in the Observer last November, had plead guilty in February to all charges, including one count of grand larceny in the second degree and two counts of grand larceny in the third degree.  Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 3/28 9:50am

Star Power

Sean and Oliver on the set of "Heaven and Earth" (photo courtesy of Sean Stone)

The Son Also Kneels: Hanging with Oliver Stone’s Kid Sean, Newly Minted Muslim

Oliver Stone was deplaning at LAX following a 16-hour trip from Indonesia when he turned on his phone and found it blowing up with texts from his office. Apparently the media—what he called the “paparazzi”—had been in touch. They wanted to ask him about his son, Sean.

In particular, they wanted to know what he thought of Sean’s decision to become a Muslim. Oliver instructed his office to decline comment. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 3/01 10:04am

lease beat

40 Wall Street

PFM Management Inks Deal at 40 Wall

Demand for space at 40 Wall Street continues to grow with news yesterday that the Trump Organization-owned building’s leasing agency signed financial advisory group PFM Management to a ten-year lease on the 49th floor of the office tower.

Public Financial Management, which does business as PFM Asset Management, is taking 9,263 square feet of turnkey space on the entire 49th floor of 40 Wall Street, brokers involved with the transaction exclusively told The Commercial Observer yesterday. Asking rents were in the low $40s. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 2/28 3:33pm

Law and Order

Wreckage from the May 2008 Crane Collapse on E. 91st St.

DOB Wanted to Cuff Crane Owner James Lomma for Shoddy Crane Upkeep

The former head of the Department of Building’s cranes and derricks division said that crane owner James Lomma should have been arrested for poorly maintaining two tower cranes in 2007.

During her testimony at Mr. Lomma’s manslaughter trial in a Manhattan courtroom yesterday, former DOB official Bethany Klein said that the head of New York Crane & Equipment Corp. had failed to make two crucial repairs to the two cranes, one of which eventually collapse and kill two men at the E. 91st street accident in 2008.  Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 2/28 2:25pm

Signage

1 Times Square. (Courtesy Property Shark)

China New Media Lights Up New York

Jamestown Properties announced yesterday that it has signed China New Media Company, a rapidly growing Chinese outdoor media company, to a one-year lease deal for a 684-foot LED screen on the 1 Times Square building.

The sign, which will be lit to the world on March 1, will be China New Media Company’s first digital signage outside of China, the company announced in a press release yesterday. Read More