By Daniel Geiger 1/30/12 7:00am

lease beat

691 Fifth Avenue.

Mac Cosmetics to Pay Highest Retail Rent in New York City History

MAC Cosmetics is in talks to lease a small store for what could be the highest rent ever paid in Manhattan. 

The popular makeup company is looking to lease a roughly 1,400-square-foot space at 691 Fifth Avenue, a property owned by Vornado Realty Trust, one of the city’s largest commercial landlords.

The space is currently occupied by the skin care company Elizabeth Arden, but Vornado has been marketing the space for rents $3,000 per square foot or higher. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 9:51am

the sit-down

Mark Keller and Edge Fund Advisors acquired 1540 Broadway in two phases.

The Chief Executive of Edge Fund Advisors Talks About 1540 Broadway

Last month, CB Richard Ellis Investors sold its remaining 51 percent stake in 1540 Broadway, the iconic, 42-story property also known as the Bertelsmann Building. For the buyers—Edge Fund Advisors and HSBC Alternative Investments Limited—the deal marks the final chapter in an acquisition grab that began last year when the joint venture took a 49 percent nonmanaging member stake. Mark Keller, Edge’s chief executive and chairman, spoke to The Commercial Observer about the investment strategy and plans to expand his company’s reach from the nation’s capital to the Big Apple.

Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 3/10/09 10:53pm

1540 Broadway Sale: The Gift of a Comp

Twenty feet, nine inches from the southeast corner of Broadway and 46th Street rises a building known as 1540 Broadway, 1.1 million square feet of pure, honest-to-goodness office space in one of Manhattan’s most coveted commercial markets: Times Square.

Deutsche Bank sold the office condo portion of the building last week Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 3/05/09 12:29am

CBRE Investors Set To Close on Macklowe’s Old 1540 Broadway

CB Richard Ellis Investors, the investment fund run by mega-brokerage CB Richard Ellis, is set to close as early as Thursday on 1540 Broadway, one of the last remnants of Harry Macklowe’s once mighty midtown empire, sources say.

The price is said to be around $355 million. Macklowe Properties purchased the tower in February 2007 Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 12/16/08 11:41pm

The Bridesmaids

New York brokers blustered into 2008 declaring the commercial real estate market immune to the credit crisis that with tornado-like rapacity knocked down prices in the rest of the country. Lehman’s aftermath cracked those rose-colored spectacles.

And all those fantastic leases and sales that titillated, that seemed ever on the verge of closure, turned Read More