Eastern Consolidated represented the seller and, according to a release, "procured" the buyer, whose identity is "undisclosed." Mr. Anton and Ron Solarz, both executive managing directors at Eastern Consolidated, worked with vice chairman Brian Ezratty and senior director Deborah Gutoff to broker the deal.

The 8,426-square-foot retail space is all leased up, and the new owner doesn't plan on making any drastic changes. "It's a pure investment," Mr. Solarz said. The storefronts, which Ms. Gutoff called "local," include Devonshire Optical, University Floral Design, Sunshine Cleaners, La Petite Coquette and Bagel Bob's.

The seller was a partnership between the Cheshire Group and Sterling Equities, which together bought the building in December 2007, "a couple days before Christmas," Mr. Anton said. Cheshire and Sterling converted the upstairs residential portion of the building from rentals to condos, which have been selling for an average of $1,850 a square foot.

Messrs. Solarz and Anton wouldn't give the buyer's identity, but Mr. Anton said it's "one of the large New York real estate families." Mr. Solarz added that the family has "a lot of experience in real estate." Tantalizing!

walden@observer.com

Last week, Mr. Spitzer sold a parking garage underneath The Corinthian condomium built by his dad Bernie in 1987. The price: $10.275 million, an apparently handsome deal for the governor-turned-real estate mogul.

This follows his purchase over the summer of a coveted Washington, D.C., office building for $180 million.

Mr. Spitzer did not respond to a request for comment, but the buyer, Alliance Parking owner Gregg Reuben, said Mr. Spitzer oversaw the transaction and was, in Mr. Reuben's words, "a total gentleman."

"He’s a very bright guy," Mr. Reuben said. "And I was impressed with the organization's level of professionalism."

Mr. Reuben, whose Alliance Parking owns 24 garages and employs about 150 people, partnered in the deal with entrepreneur Bert Brodsky.

Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, represented both sides in the transaction. Mr. Knakal said that, in contrast to other classes of investment properties, garages have remained valuable assets. "I would say that garage condominiums continue to be highly sought-after given the relatively finite quantity of parking spaces in Manhattan," he said.

Not to mention Manhattanites' continued willingness to rent parking spaces at astronomical prices.

The garage in question has 186 spaces and 89 personal storage units for building residents.

Eastern Consolidated vice chairman Brian Ezratty, who has completed more than 80 garage deals in the city, said, "In today’s market, that sounds like a big price. [But] I think Gregg knows what he's doing, and hopefully he’ll be able to turn it around and figure out how to make some money there."

Mr. Reuben concurred.

"You have 863 apartment units above you; 80,000 square feet of medical office space above you," he said. "And, you’re in close proximity to the Midtown Tunnel as well as NYU Hospital. It’s a strong area, and it’s well positioned to grow."

drubinstein@observer.com

In this case, it was a deal that not only established Mr. Ezratty as a premier broker at Eastern Consolidated, but may have also been a key ingredient in the revival of Times Square. Oh, and it may have even kept David Letterman from fleeing New York for California.

“That was a fun one,” said Mr. Ezratty, when asked about the 1993 sale of the Ed Sullivan Theater to CBS in a last-minute, over-the-top overture to Mr. Letterman, who had signed a contract with the Tiffany Network after NBC snubbed him by installing Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show.

Until then, Mr. Ezratty, 51, had been trafficking primarily in parking lots and Class B office towers—lucrative, no doubt, but far less sexy than the marquee studio that beckoned. Indeed, since joining Eastern Consolidated, Mr. Ezratty estimates that he has leased just shy of 100 garage deals across the city and $9 billion in sales over the past 24 years.

“Parking garages and parking lots are about 2 percent of my business,” said Mr. Ezratty last week from his Lexington Avenue office in midtown. “It’s just something I’ve always done. I sell a building and I see a garage in the building. I see a lease expiring in a year, and I just say, ‘Let me handle it.’”

But Mr. Ezratty’s focus changed in 1993, when he was hired by Boston-based First Winthrop to broker a deal for the Ed Sullivan Theater and an adjoining 80,000-square-foot office building.

Dilapidated and rotting away from years of neglect, the theater on Broadway had sunk a long way from its previous life as the home of the legendary host Ed Sullivan. When Mr. Ezratty came on board, in fact, it was being used for what he described as a bizarre combination of high-definition television and performance art that tended to draw as few as 50 or 60 spectators a night.

“The place was pretty disgusting,” recalled Mr. Ezratty, who said the tenant at the time owed six months rent and was in arrears for as much as $600,000. “The bathrooms were gross. It was in such dilapidated shape, you couldn’t even sit in the seats.”

Mr. Ezratty, nonetheless, shopped the 82-year-old theater around to people like music promoter Ron Delsner, among other theater proprietors, all of whom showed significant interest. But it was only after the feud between Mr. Letterman and NBC became public—and shortly after the host signed a contract with CBS—that Mr. Ezratty blindly called CBS to pitch the well-worn property.

The real estate people at CBS were cagey at first, telling Mr. Ezratty not to believe everything he read in the papers. But when the negotiations between CBS and Mr. Letterman continued, Mr. Ezratty received a call from those same people, now insisting that the network was very interested in discussing a deal. All was good, in fact, until news broke that Mr. Letterman would be heading to California and hosting his show from L.A.

“We were negotiating a deal to buy the theater, and in the middle of that, the New York Post comes out with a story: ‘Letterman moving to California. CBS buying studio in Los Angeles,’” Mr. Ezratty said. “I called up my guys and said, ‘What the fuck is that? Is there any truth?’ And they said, ‘Brian, don’t believe everything you read.’”

In the end, CBS rushed to ink a deal, closing for $4.5 million that February in a whirlwind bid to renovate the studio in time for the show’s premiere in August of 1993. The renovations would end up costing CBS an additional $15 million as well as nearly $1 million in debt owed by the tenant that the network paid in order to avoid court delays.

The sale marked one of the earliest big projects in Times Square’s early ’90s revival and paved the way for others over the next few years, earning Mr. Ezratty the Real Estate Board of New York’s “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year” award the same year. 

“I’m a Letterman fan,” laughed Mr. Ezratty when asked who among the late-night hosts he prefers. “I kind of feel obligated to be a Letterman fan.”

MR. EZRATTY WAS BORN in Long Beach, Long Island, to a pair of longtime garment-district manufacturers. A competitive young man, he played high-school varsity baseball and other sports before taking the reins at his parents’ sportswear manufacturing company in the late 1970s. When the company went global, however, Mr. Ezratty chose to change careers rather than run the business from the Orient.

Armed with a Wharton School of Business degree but almost no real experience to speak of, save for a few deals he made on behalf of the family garment business, Mr. Ezratty set out for a career as a real estate broker.

“I met with 15 different firms and basically got 15 different offers,” said Mr. Ezratty, who added that his goal had always been to own property. “People figured Wharton School education, you own your own business and you’re entrepreneurial—it’s a good match. But, really, I had no real estate experience at all.”

When he was hired at Eastern Consolidated in 1985, Mr. Ezratty was among just four brokers at the four-year-old company, a number that would skyrocket to more than 40 brokers over the next two decades.

Along the way, he was included in Crain’s annual “40 under 40” list in 1996, in part because of the Ed Sullivan deal and those rapidly increasing parking garage leases. Mr. Ezratty has inked approximately 30 deals a year since the early ’90s, including dozens on behalf of big-name developers like Harry Macklowe and Steve Witkoff, among other titans.

But similar to many in Mr. Ezratty’s field, sales have dropped since last year, as fewer development deals are being made in a crushing economy.

“What we look at is sales, and the volume has dropped dramatically,” said Mr. Ezratty, the father of two children, one of whom celebrates her bat mitzvah this week and another who is touring colleges to study filmmaking. He lives with his wife, Debbie Ezratty, in Westchester. “For the last 15 years, I’ve done 25 to 30 deals a year, and this year maybe I’ve done 10 deals; and of those 10 about five of them were parking deals. So clearly the volume is way off.”

“I think there will be a flood of deals,” Mr. Ezratty added. “But it could take another six to 12 months to get to that point.”

jsederstrom@observer.com

Brack Capital Real Estate has bought for $31 million a six-story parking garage on the north side of West 35th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, and plans to build a 300-room "upscale hotel." Brack already has a hand in New York projects like 15 Union Square West and The Chartwell House at 1760 Second Avenue.

Eastern Consolidated's Brian Ezratty and Scott Ellard repped both Brack and seller Icon Parking. Full release after the jump.

- Tom Acitelli

BRACK CAPITAL REAL ESTATE ACQUIRES MIDTOWN DEVELOPMENT SITE FOR $31 MILLION

UPSCALE HOTEL TO RISE ON WEST 35TH STREET

Brack Capital Real Estate - USA has acquired 63-67 West 35th Street for $31 million from Icon Parking, it was announced by Moshe Azogui, CEO of Brack USA. Mr. Azogui said he plans to develop an upscale hotel with 300 rooms in the heart of bustling midtown south.

The site, on the north side of West 35th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in Herald Square, is currently occupied by a six-story parking garage.

"This prime site is centrally located with easy access to Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station (and the planned Moynihan Station) and close to such New York icons as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Macy's, Madison Square Garden, Bryant Park and Times Square," Mr. Azogui said. "It is an ideal spot for attracting both business executives and tourists," he said. Construction is expected to start immediately.

Eastern Consolidated's Brian Ezratty, Vice Chairman, and Scott Ellard, Director, represented both Brack Capital Real Estate and the seller, Darryl Mallah of Icon Parking.

"The price attained for 63-67 West 35th Street is commensurate with the pricing achieved for other such centrally-located Midtown properties with development potential," said Mr. Ezratty. "Zoned to accommodate any type of residential or commercial development, the new buyer's choice of hotel use should bode well at a time when there is a distinct dearth of hospitality properties in the City."

-more-

Brack Capital Real Estate - USA, which owns and manages a number of developments in New York and Florida, is known for its meticulous restoration and renovation of the majestic 90 West Street, the Cass Gilbert designed landmark damaged during 9/11. Other current New York projects include the landmark Olcott at 27 West 72 Street, Element at 555 West 59 Street, 230 Riverside Drive, 240 East 27 Street, 150 East 85 Street, The Chartwell House at 1760 Second Avenue and 15 Union Square West.

Brack Capital Real Estate - USA is a fully owned subsidiary of Brack Capital Real Estate, part of the Brack Capital Group, an investment firm with global holdings. More information about the company may be found at www.brack-capital.com.

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