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The Power Broker

By Guelda Voien 11/22/11 2:30pm

The Power Broker

From the Far West Side to... Scarsdale?

Winick Realty’s Far West Side Shepherd

Steven Baker built a life, and staked his career, on the Far West Side of Manhattan at a time when the High Line still languished as an abandoned freight track and nearly every block west of Ninth Avenue included a warehouse, garage or parking lot.

While other brokers followed dollar signs in Midtown and across Madison Avenue, Mr. Baker, then a young broker living in a Ninth Avenue bachelor pad, saw potential in the dusty warehouses and loading docks he walked past in the summer of 2000.

“I knew I wanted to control the neighborhood,” recalled the 40-year-old Mr. Baker, now a managing partner at Winick Realty, who has played a leading role in transforming the area. Read More

By Guelda Voien 11/15/11 3:45pm

The Power Broker

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The (New) Wizard of Menlo Park

In January, a leak to the Bergen County Record revealed that Panasonic, a tenant in New Jersey since 1973, was considering fleeing the state in search of modern facilities and with an eye toward shrinking its North American headquarters. New York, Atlanta, Chicago and California were all on the table. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 11/01/11 11:38am

The Power Broker

The broker techies (and venture capitalists) trust.

The Online World's Brick-and-Mortar Man

The fastest way to an emerging tech company’s heart is through its venture capitalist.

Such has been the modus operandi of Jack Petrie, a senior vice president at CresaPartners who has amassed a list of clients that reads like a veritable who’s who of Silicon Alley. He’s found these clients through contacts and clients of his in venture capital.

“I [find] that usually I can connect the dots with a lot of these companies with relationships I have with V.C. firms and people I have met through the community,” said Mr. Petrie, 50. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 10/18/11 10:15am

The Power Broker

Lisa Kiell has inked deals for Cisco Systems, Microsoft and BBC

The Number Cruncher: The JLL Powerhouse on Her BBC Deal

When the British Broadcasting Corporation began its search for new office space for the executive and sales staff in Manhattan last year, its focus was on finding space that had a newsroom feel, free of the labyrinthine private offices and barriers so common among law firms, doctors’ offices and corporate accounting firms.

Like the bullpen made famous by Mayor Bloomberg, the company envisioned a Manhattan office with open space that would inspire transparency and collaboration while eschewing privacy. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 10/11/11 11:38am

The Power Broker

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The Underdog

If Leon Manoff were to sketch his nine-month search for office space on behalf of ASME, the 131-year-old association of mechanical engineers, it would look like a swirl of concentric circles, with each spiral extending farther from the organization’s space at 3 Park Avenue.

Over the course of his search, in fact, the Colliers International tenant agent toured floorplates 20 blocks north and more than three miles south, all across Lower Manhattan. In total, Mr. Manoff and his clients considered more than 30 buildings over the span of roughly 10 tours.

But as is so often the case, the building that ASME executives liked most of all was hiding in their own backyard, at 2 Park Avenue, directly out the window. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 5/10/11 7:51pm

The Power Broker

Gerald Kiley of Grubb & Ellis: The Fisherman of the Suburban Markets

On a sun-kissed Thursday afternoon, Gerard Kiley arrived at Grubb & Ellis’ new Manhattan headquarters. It was the broker’s first visit to the Avenue of the Americas office, but it certainly wouldn’t be his last.

Indeed, for a broker who focuses squarely on Westchester and Fairfield counties, the 25-year commercial real estate pro’s thrice-weekly, 45-minute Read More