The real estate investor and British department store tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed is exploring a sale of the Manhattan office tower 75 Rockefeller Plaza.
According to executives who have been briefed on the offering, Mr. Al Fayed is aiming to negotiate a leasehold of the property in which he would continue to own the land under the 600,000-square-foot building and collect rent but put control of the asset in the hands of an investor. Read More
New York landlord Charles Cohen says he’s not concerned about opening vacancies in his portfolio.
In the past year, two large tenants relocated from buildings Mr. Cohen owns. Read More
Speeches were casually ignored, drinks were spilled and bonds were formed at last Thursday’s 116th annual Real Estate Board of New York Gala, which this year drew an estimated 2,000 brokers, owners, advertising buyers and real estate reporters to the New York Hilton for an evening of conviviality, honorifics and hushed deal making. Among the fray was Commercial Observer staff writer Daniel Geiger, who during the course of the evening saw his stenopad tossed by an irate real estate broker and who unabashedly accosted Studley’s Woody Heller in the hotel’s bathroom, all for the sake of the story. Below, a timeline of gala comings and goings, from the innocuous gossip down to the downright obnoxious. Read More
The New Jersey Nets are taking another step closer to becoming Brooklyn’s first professional sports team since the Dodgers walked away from the borough almost 55 years ago, sources revealed to The Commercial Observer yesterday.
The team is relocating its corporate headquarters from East Rutherford to Downtown Brooklyn, where the organization is taking 35,145 square feet at the office building 15 MetroTech Center. The Nets will take the space for between five and 10 years at rents in the $30s per square foot, said sources. Read More
Hired to lease 641 Avenue of the Americas earlier this year, Peter Turchin, an executive at the real estate services firm CBRE, quickly knew what potential takers the 170,000-square-foot building could appeal to.
The property is located at the edge of Chelsea, a neighborhood that in recent years has attracted an influx of technology, Internet and social media-related firms. Earlier this year, the area’s rise as the focal point of what is being dubbed a burgeoning “Silicon Alley” in Manhattan was cemented by Google’s $2 billion acquisition of 111 Eighth Avenue, a nearly three-million-square-foot property between 15th and 16th streets where the Internet search and software company bases its New York operations.
Still, Mr. Turchin said he didn’t want to rest on the neighborhood’s credentials alone. Read More
As the old adage goes, you only have one chance to make a first impression.
For Infor, a business software company whose roster of 70,000 clients – Saab, AB World Foods, Foxwood Casinos, et al – are far more recognizable than they are, moving into New York City’s growing tech market is as good as telling the world you’re ready to play with the big boys.
Infor signed a long-term lease at 641 Avenue of the Americas, an eight-story building owned by Atlas Capital Group, officials announced earlier today. Read More
The owners of 681 Fifth Avenue, a building that already counts aspiring global fashion company Belstaff as a tenant, has brought on three new tenants into its fancy fold, including financial firms Peregrine Financial Group and Altum Capital Management.
Apex Bulk Carriers, an international owner of large shipping vessels, also signed a lease to take up the entire 11th floor. Read More
Newmark Knight Frank brokers are being asked to contribute as much as ten percent of their commissions into stock in BGC Partners, the publically owned financial company that in recent weeks acquired the real estate services firm. Read More
Cushman & Wakefield has been tapped as leasing agent for Brookfield Office Properties’ massive 5.4 million-square-foot Manhattan West development on Ninth Avenue between West 31st and 33rd streets.
The new development boasts two new office towers at 2 million square feet apiece, along with a smaller tower–just by a hair, at 1.2 million square feet — and a fourth building at 200,000 square feet that will be a mixed-use space. Read More
The Commercial Observer: So, are you about to have more time on your hands?
Mr. Mosler: I certainly will have more time to devote to business development, which is what this was all about. At the end of the day, this was a move to get me to client interface; Read More
