By Daniel Geiger 1/17/12 12:04pm

Lease of the Week

Starrett-Lehigh Building. (Courtesy Property Shark)

“The Most Complicated Deal I Personally Have Handled.”

It’s not uncommon to hear Manhattan’s real estate market characterized as sophisticated or complex.

Not every day, however, does a requirement as straightforward as Dentsu McGarryBowen’s uncork such an elaborate and interconnected series of transactions as it did at the Starrett-Lehigh Building.

A longtime tenant in the 2.3-million-square-foot building and one of the property’s largest users, the advertising firm needed to expand. But there was a small problem: Despite its size, the building—an artsy, far West Side location popular among creative tenants—had virtually no available space. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 1/17/12 11:00am

lease beat

Starrett-Lehigh Building. (Courtesy Property Shark)

Gamble Pays Off at Starrett-Lehigh

A year into owning the Starrett-Lehigh Building, RXR Realty is making what at first appeared a dicey gamble into an investment that looks closer to a sure thing.

RXR, led by its chief executive Scott Rechler, acquired the 2.3 million-square-foot far West Side office building last year for a whopping $900 million, a purchase price that equated to almost $400 per square foot. Though buildings in Midtown have traded for double that or more on a per square foot basis in recent months, the sheer magnitude of the investment turned heads as a jumbo-sized commitment in a neighborhood that many brokers and tenants still consider off the beaten path. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 1/17/12 10:30am

Commercial Observer

Bernard Resnick, Sheldon Silver and Steven Spinola, circa 1996.

Reeling in the Years With the Real Estate Board of New York: In their own words, brokers and owners tell the tale of REBNY’s past half century

Since it started with a roll call of 27 members in 1896 with the goal of “facilitating transactions in real estate,” the Real Estate Board of New York has indisputably been the city’s most influential real estate organization, with its annual gala being to brokers what the Vanity Fair Oscar party is for Hollywood: If you’re there, it means you’re somebody.

Sure, some may lovingly write it off as a veritable men’s club (men are thought to outnumber women five to one), chide it as “The Liar’s Ball” (each year is a broker’s best year, no matter how wretched the marketplace) and speak ill of the food (nearly everyone avoids the chicken and filet mignon).

But the REBNY gala is as essential to a real estate person’s reputation and status as the buildings and bricks he works with. A dozen of the city’s most legendary players spoke to The Commercial Observer about the blurry nights and boom years that helped make the event what it is today.
Read More

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 Geiger 1/03/12 1:00pm

Lease of the Week

450 West 15th Street. (Courtesy Property Shark)

Re-inVenting the Meatpacking District

inVentiv Health, a multifaceted provider of services in the health care industry, has signed a 75,000-square-foot renewal and expansion for its subsidiary Chandler Chicco Agency at 450 West 15th Street.

The company, which handles public relations and advertising for health care companies, renewed its lease for the 300,000-square-foot building’s entire seventh floor and a portion of six. The firm will expand onto part of the building’s fourth floor, taking a little over 21,000 square feet. Read More

By Dan Geiger 1:00pm

Lease of the Week

NYC Bonds Draw "Strong Demand" Abroad As Yield Exceeds Spain's Left

Advertising Spin-Off DDCD & Partners Moves to 17 State Street

For months DDCD & Partners had been in the market for more than 10,000 square feet of space and the new advertising firm was starting to see a trend.

Its partners had walked through one stuffy Art Deco lobby too many and had spent too much time contemplating how the company’s operations could be arranged in offices littered with bulky columns and, likewise, how company morale could be kept afloat in the cavelike environs cut off from light and air that they kept encountering.

DDCD had given its broker, CBRE executive vice president William Iacovelli, a simple mandate: find space in Midtown South. It was a request that Mr. Iacovelli was perfectly happy to comply with. For years, the neighborhood has been a draw for mad men and creative tenants alike. Read More

By Dan Geiger 12/15/11 10:00am

lease beat

1440 Broadway. (Courtesy Property Shark)

USA Today Owner Inks 23K Deal

Gannett Co. is leasing a 23,000 square foot space at 1440 Broadway. The media holding company, which owns USA Today as well as several other daily newspapers and television stations across the country, will be using the space for a new online division a source said. Read More

By Dan Geiger 12/15/11 9:00am

lease beat

100 Church Street. (Courtesy Property Shark)

EXCLUSIVE: Law Dept. Renewal a Vote of Confidence for 100 Church Street

The New York City Law Department is renewing a roughly 280,000-square-foot-lease at 100 Church Street, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The department, which represents the city, the Mayor and all city agencies in both civil and criminal litigation cases, occupies several floors at 100 Church Street, a roughly 1.1-million-square-foot building in Lower Manhattan where the office has based its operations since 1978. Read More

By Dan Geiger 12/13/11 10:04am

power broker

444 Madison Avenue.

Too Small? Too Big? Just Right.

It may have been the kind of problem every tenant wishes it had, but for Wasserman Media Group it was a problem nonetheless.

Only a few months had elapsed since the firm had signed on at the start of the year to take roughly 7,000 square feet on the fourth floor of the midtown office tower 444 Madison Avenue, and already it was clear to Wasserman’s executives that they had significantly miscalculated the company’s needs. Read More