By Daniel Geiger 3/02/12 9:30am

Investment Sales 2012

Richard Baxter. (Illustration by Joao Maio Pinto)

Jones Lang LaSalle’s Richard Baxter on 75 Rockefeller Plaza and 10 East 53rd

The investment sales market, most brokers agree, has been heating up over the past 12 months. Approximately $25.8 billion in commercial properties changed hands last year, a turnaround that represented an 88 percent increase over 2010. But while the positive uptick is easily verifiable, what happens next for Manhattan’s investment sales market is still up in the air.

Accordingly, The Commercial Observer set out to speak with the real estate industry’s most accomplished capital markets and sales practitioners to learn what’s in store for 2012. Over the next several days, we’ll post interviews with heavy hitters like Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan of CBRE, J.D. Parker of Marcus & Millichap, Woody Heller of Studley and Peter Hausperg of Eastern Consolidated. But, first, after the jump, none other than Richard Baxter of Jones Lang LaSalle.

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By Jotham Sederstrom 2/29/12 2:35pm

Investment Sales 2012

Darcy Stacom. (Illustration by Joao Maio Pinto)

Darcy Stacom & William Shanahan on 10 East 53rd Street Chinese Investors

The investment sales market, most brokers agree, has been heating up over the past 12 months. Approximately $25.8 billion in commercial properties changed hands last year, a turnaround that represented an 88 percent increase over 2010. But while the positive uptick is easily verifiable, what happens next for Manhattan’s investment sales market is still up in the air.

Accordingly, The Commercial Observer set out to speak with the real estate industry’s most accomplished capital markets and sales practitioners to learn what’s in store for 2012. Over the next several days, we’ll post interviews with heavy hitters like Richard Baxter of Jones Lang LaSalle, J.D. Parker of Marcus & Millichap, Woody Heller of Studley and Peter Hausperg of Eastern Consolidated. But, first, after the jump, none other than Darcy Stacom and William Shanahan of CBRE.

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By Daniel Geiger 1/03/12 3:00pm

power broker

Baxter, Richard NEW 6 31 11

Richard Baxter Dishes on the Drama Behind the Deals at Casa Lever

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. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 11/01/11 12:09pm

The Lease Beat

Queen of Skyscrapers, Meet the Crown Jewel. (Courtesy Property Shark)

'Queen of Skyscrapers' tapped to sell 10 East 53rd Street; Goes to Halloween Party Dressed as Self

The owners of 10 East 53rd Street have tapped CB Richard Ellis‘ “Queen of the Skyscrapers” to find a buyer for the “hidden gem” of a midtown office building, which already counts HarperCollins Publishers as a tenant.

Owner New Millenium Estates will rely on Darcy Stacom, a vice chairman at CBRE, to sell the building.

Ms. Stacom thinks she can find a new owner who will transform the 37-story, 388,000-square-foot asset into “the jewel box it can be.” Read More