Cushman & Wakefield duo Harry Blair and Sean Kearns have been named the exclusive leasing and managing agents for 501 Seventh Avenue, the W&H Properties-owned 18-story office building in the thick of the Midtown South market, it was announced in a press release today. Read More
Demand for space at 40 Wall Street continues to grow with news yesterday that the Trump Organization-owned building’s leasing agency signed financial advisory group PFM Management to a ten-year lease on the 49th floor of the office tower.
Public Financial Management, which does business as PFM Asset Management, is taking 9,263 square feet of turnkey space on the entire 49th floor of 40 Wall Street, brokers involved with the transaction exclusively told The Commercial Observer yesterday. Asking rents were in the low $40s. Read More
It’s not just the biggest real estate conference no one has heard of. It’s the biggest real estate conference period. And, yes, most real estate professionals, at least in New York, haven’t heard of it.
Next week 19,000 guests from 90 countries will descend on Cannes, France, for MIPIM, a four-day event that roughly translates as “International Market for Real Estate Professionals” featuring speaking panels and networking opportunities that allow developers to shop major new projects to prospective tenants and investors. Read More
Paramount Group is the buyer set to acquire a 49 percent stake in 900 Third Avenue from Investa Office Fund, sources told The Commercial Observer. That stake was IOF’s final US property. The sale is set to close in late March 2012 and was announced in mid-February with a sale agreement of $172.7 million, though IOF didn’t disclose the buyer at that time.
“The sale of IOF’s interest in the New York asset will complete the fund’s exit from the US market in line with our stated strategy, at an overall premium of 9.4 percent to June book value,” IOF Fund Manager Toby Phelps said in a prepared statement. Read More
A self-described car guy, Woody Heller, executive managing director and head of the Capital Transactions Group at Studley, sees parallels between automobiles as hard assets and commercial real estate investment sales velocity in New York. Apart from the obvious luxury to be found in cars and Class A buildings alike—his 33-million-square-foot transaction volume likely doesn’t include a jalopy—both markets have also lately been bolstered by similar factors.
“With debt available and with interest rates so incredibly low, it encourages one to buy because money is so cheap,” he said. “If the asset class is in favor compared with what much of the alternatives are—if borrowing costs are incredibly low—it continues to steer people to want to invest in hard assets like real estate.” Read More
Broadway Dance Center has expanded its lease at 321 West 44th Street to about 30,000 square feet.
The school and studio, which has its entrance on the 230,000 square foot building’s 45th Street side entryway, which goes by the address 322 West 45th Street, offers both classes for beginners and workshops for seasoned dancers alike taught by acclaimed professionals. Read More
Kushner Companies has named a team from the real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield as the new leasing agent for 321 West 44th Street, the asset that houses The New York Observer.
Arthur Mirante, C&W’s former chief executive who is now a top dealmaker at the firm, will lead leasing at the property along with C&W executives Jeff Lichtenberg and Joshua Goldman.
C&W will be replacing a team from Colliers International.
It would have been easy for Lou D’Avanzo and his Cushman & Wakefield leasing team to rest on their laurels.
While Condé Nast’s million-square-foot lease at 1 World Trade Center last year has become a dominant emblem of downtown’s resurgence as a popular destination for office tenants, the C&W group’s lease-up of 77 Water Street has also etched its way into recent lore in the neighborhood. 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
“For us, we had to do something different,” said Donald Trump Jr. last week, his voice rising with excitement.
Freshly tanned from a recent visit to Mexico, where he was overseeing a new project, the slicked-back scion grew steadily more enthusiastic as he discussed 40 Wall Street, an office tower that, with its rising and falling tenant roster, has contributed to the Trump Organization executive vice president’s growing reputation as a competent steward of the family name, a reliable fixer and successful dealmaker in his own right. Read More
