Feed

The Plan

By Jotham Sederstrom 2/21/12 1:50pm

The Plan

1078 Fulton Street.

1078 Fulton Street

When Nechama Levy began her search for retail space last July, she took advantage of years of experience as a bicycle shop employee to inform her real estate decisions, and then Colliers International brokers Charles Goldberg and Hank Widmaier sealed the deal at 1078 Fulton Street.

Beside ample basement space, Ms. Levy also considered floor plates large enough to install what she described as ergonomically correct racks and other bicycle-specific design flourishes. After the jump, Geoffrey Prisco of Brutus Park Architecture and Ms. Levy review the floor plans with The Commercial Observer and discuss what, exactly, convinced the first-time business owner to open her 5,800-square-foot shop, Bicycle Roots, in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 2/14/12 11:20am

The Plan

505 Eighth Avenue.

Common Ground at 505 Eighth Avenue

When the nonprofit Common Ground chose to shed aging space on the 15th floor of 505 Eighth Avenue, the affordable housing advocates tapped Cassidy Turley brokers to find space, and, subsequently met with agency rep Allen Gurevich of Newmark Knight Frank, who showed the group 12,000 square feet on the building’s fifth floor.

More challenging for Common Ground, however, was building out a new, state-of-the-art space despite the budget constraints of a typical nonprofit. To achieve its requirements, officials at Common Ground turned to Marc Gordon, a partner at architecture firm Spacesmith, to do more with less.

After the jump, Messrs Gurevich and Gordon review the new floor plans with The Commercial Observer and explain why, exactly, Common Ground chose to relocate to the fifth floor last week.

Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 2/07/12 2:30pm

The Plan

321 W 44th-Michael Chimento

New York Beer Co. Hits 321 West 44th

When the New York Beer Company opens for business at 321 West 44th Street this March, patrons will be able to invest in the alcohol consumption of their peers. Loosely inspired by the New York Stock Exchange, the latest enterprise by restaurateur Brian Connell will feature brews priced according to how popular each brand is among its customers. Despite the novel idea, Mr. Connell’s search for approximately 2,500 square feet of ground-floor space and 2,500 square feet of basement space hit a dead end early last year after a nine-month scouring of Midtown South. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 1/31/12 2:37pm

The Plan

The Plan: 2758 Broadway

When Meridiana, a fixture on the Upper West Side, shuttered after nearly two decades, Massey Knakal broker David Chkheidze exposed the Broadway storefront to what rapidly grew into a formidable crowd of more than a hundred would-be retail tenants, despite what he candidly described as a space in disrepair. After tours from both local and Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 1/25/12 3:30pm

The Plan

Click to enlarge

The Plan: 600 Third Avenue

When the holding company Altegrity acquired operating company Kroll in August 2010, one stipulation agreed upon was that the owners would relocate into an expanded space in order to consolidate offices at 1166 Avenue of the Americas and 570 Lexington Avenue—as well as another site in Hoboken. What resulted was a whirlwind tour of more than a dozen buildings that culminated in a deal that winter for 50,000 square feet at 600 Third Avenue. Richard Loeber, director of real estate for Altegrity, reviewed the fourth-floor plan—in a deal that ultimately included floors 3, 4 and 10—with The Commercial Observer and explained why the company chose to sign its deal at 600 Third and and hire the Mufson Partnership to customize the space .

Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 11/16/11 12:46pm

The Plan

H:201111385A0011385A00SheetsA-401 A-401 (1)

The Plan: Quirky, 601 West 27th Street

In June, the rapidly growing product development social network Quirky inked a deal for 27,500 square feet at 601 West 27th Street, a former ministorage facility currently in the process of converting into offices for a number of other tech companies. Otherwise known as the Terminal Warehouse Building, the seven-story, 1.2 million-square-foot property near 11th Avenue was built in the late 19th Century, yet only just began leasing space to office tenants several years ago. As such, Quirky, which quadruples in size from its current space at 628 Broadway, took advantage of raw space, high ceilings and start-up friendly, loft-like floor plates. After the jump, Ben Kaufman, the company’s 25-year-old founder and chief executive and Greg Taubin, a senior managing director at the real estate firm Studley who inked the deal, reviewed the floor plan and discussed what impressed them the most.

Read More