UPDATE: This is how the Empire State Building appeared last night after CNN called the election for Barack Obama (since 2000, the Democrats have traditionally been "blue"). 

CNN has announced via press release that they'll be lighting the Empire State Building tonight to honor the winner of the Presidential election.

If the network calls Mitt Romney as the winner, the tower will blaze red; if President Obama is re-elected, blue will light the night. Until that point, the building will be lit in red, white, and blue stripes along its facade and half-red and half-blue atop its mast.

Given the closeness of this election, though, we may not see either light tonight; we just hope the winner is declared before November 13, so that CNN doesn't step on the toes of the planned green, white, and red lights in honor of the Radio City Christmas show.

What're you lookin' at? (Visualhouse/Related)

Party on the skyline. (Visualhouse/Related)

Earlier this week, the Related Companies announced it had found backers to begin building the first tower of its Hudson Yards project (at the same time that it is trying to get a break from the MTA for payments on the entire 16-acre complex). Should the project get off the ground, it will have a long way to go.

Sure, in terms of time, as it will takes years, if not decades, for the entire 12 million square feet of office, residential, retail and cultural space to be built. But there is also a long way to go in terms of distance. As the design team puts the finishing touches on the first phase of the project, it turns out the other office tower on the site, which has yet to find an anchor tenant or an announced start date, will become the second or third tallest building in the city when it is completed, surpassing the Empire State Building.

At 1,300 feet, the tallest of the Hudson Yards towers (designed by KPF) will fall just short of 1 World Trade Center (sans antenna, er, spire) and the even taller 432 Park, CIM and Harry Macklowe’s new luxury tower at the corner of 57th Street and Park Avenue, which reaches a spindly 1,397 feet into the skyline.

But this is not the only place where Hudson Yards will surpass the Empire State Building. It will also boast both a observation areas closer to heaven than at the Empire State Building, both indoors and out.

Perhaps you noticed an unusual shard jutting out from the side of the tallest tower in the latest set of renderings, first revealed a few weeks ago in New York magazine? That is an open-air observation deck located at 1,100 feet. That puts it 50 feet above the Empire State Building’s famous outdoor terrace, that iconic movie set and marriage proposal destination.

And above Hudson Yard’s outdoor observation space will be a veritable playland of attractions reaching to the top of the tower, and by extension beyond the Empire State Building’s topmost observation room, at 1,250 feet, the place where zeppelins were once meant to dock.

"It's more akin to the Rainbow Room to be honest," Related spokeswoman Joanna Rose explained. "We have a ballroom, restaurant and bars above the observation deck that offer panoramic views. And yes, we are looking at locating some of those above the 1250 mark."

They are just going after all the landmarks—not just the Empire State Building but Rockefeller Center, too. And it will be hard to compete, since as previously reported, that master of hospitality Danny Meyer will be running the show way up in the clouds.

The Empire State Building (ESB)

“Today, a disgruntled employee of a company which neighbors the Empire State Building fatally shot a former co-worker. Two police officers who are part of the NYPD’s normal coverage of the area around the Empire State Building approached and fatally shot the man. Nine others were injured in the shooting. This unfortunate event had nothing to do with the Empire State Building or with terrorism. The Empire State Building and its Observatories remained open throughout, and continue to be open and operating. At no time was there any related activity in the building. We express our deepest concern for those innocents who were hurt and our appreciation to the NYPD.”

The Empire State Building (ESB)

At least ten people have been shot at the Empire State Building this morning including an as-yet-unidentified shooter according to a spokesman for the New York City Police Department. The male shooter was killed, but the NYPD says further information about the gunman or his motivations is currently "unknown."

We'll update this post as soon as we know more.

Original Post (9:54 a.m.): At least four people have been shot at the Empire State Building this morning including an as-yet-unidentified shooter according to a spokesman for the department. The shooter was killed.

“At least four people were shot outside the building including the perp and the perp was shot dead-on-arrival,” an officer with the NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Public Information told the Observer.

The NYPD spokesman said they had no further information about the shooter at this time. He also said they could not provide any information about how the incident began.

“We’re still gathering information on that,” he said.

Update (10:05 a.m.): According to the New York Post, the shooting stemmed from a "dispute between coworkers" and left "at least two dead including the gunman" and "a total of 10 people shot."

Update (10:21 a.m.): An NYPD spokesman, Sergeant Ryan, confirmed that ten people were injured in the shooting including the gunman, who was killed. Sergeant Ryan said it was a "male perpetrator" but that other information about his race, age or possible motivations is currently "unknown."

Update (10:33 a.m.): A Flick user, MCM Photography has posted a very graphic set of photos taken outside the building.

© Mickey C Marrero Photography Inc.

Update (11:04 a.m.): Intern-on-the-scene Jonah Wolf sends the below photograph of observers filling 34th Street.

The crowd outside the Empire State Building post-shooting

Update (11:12 a.m.): The shooting was apparently sparked by a dispute between co-workers at a business inside the Empire State Building, according to the Daily News. WNBC is reporting that the deceased victim may be the boss of the shooter. DCPI wouldn't confirm the report.

Update (11:21 a.m.): Hani Durzy, director of corporate communications at LinkedIn, writes to The Observer: "We are extremely relieved that we can confirm that all LinkedIn staff in our Empire State Building Office are accounted for and safe."

Update (11:25 a.m.): Mayor Michael Bloomberg just confirmed that the shooter was a fired employee. He was a 5356-year-old worker at Hazan Accessories Imports, and shot a co-worker three times when a .45 semiautomatic handgun.

Update (11:32 a.m.): More details from the press conference: there are one dead and nine shot; the shooter attempted to shoot at a cop on the scene, according to the mayor. Police have begun letting people in to the Empire State Building's 33rd Street entrance, The Observer's Jonah Wolf reports.

 Update (11:37 a.m.): Another gruesome photo from @StephLauren:

Victim in the Empire State Building shooting this morning.

Update (11:39 a.m.): The perpetrator has been identified as Jeffrey Johnson, 53 56, a former employee at Hazan Imports, where he designed women's accessories, according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. The victim was 41.

Update (11:54 a.m.): The Observer's David Freedlander tweets that the shooting occurred by building's north entrance, near 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, according to Commissioner Kelly's post-press conference comments, and that one of the victims hails from North Carolina.

A receptionist at one building tenant, meanwhile, tells The Observer that building management told her company that workers could leave the building through the 34th Street entrance, but can only enter on the building's south side.

Update (11:57):

The shooter's car.

Update (12:17): Statement from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who commended NYPD and emergency responders: "Our state has no tolerance for senseless acts of violence that harm our people, and we will do everything possible to ensure that law enforcement officials have the tools they need so residents of the city and tourists can enjoy everything New York City has to offer without fearing for their own safety and security."

Update (1:16) After Mike Bloomberg's press conference, Ray Kelly briefed reporters on the shooting. He updated the shooter's age to 56--earlier accounts had him at 53--and said that there were multiple cross complaint harassment allegations between the shooter and victim that lasted a over a year. "There was an ongoing dispute between the suspect and the person that he killed." He added that it appears as if several of the nine shot were wounded by police responding to the scene.

Update (1:26): “Within a quarter of a second, it was mass chaos," an audibly upset Kim Levering told The Observer's Daniel Edward Rosen over the telephone from her Park Slope apartment. "

Ms. Levering, a senior writer and communications director at the nonprofit Autism Speaks had gone to work like any other day, exiting the Q train at 32nd Street and Sixth, and was walking east on 33rd Street when the gunman opened fire.

There was a "pop, pop, pop," Ms. Levering said, followed by mass hysteria. She turned to head back west to Sixth Avenue, but got caught in the crush of people trying to flee the chaos. "“I almost got trampled when I got up against the wall and tried top turn to go back,” she said. "You couldn't tell if the shooter was chasing us up the street."

Ms. Levering, who told The Observer that she was leaving New York tomorrow on a trip to Burning Man, made her way to Sixth Avenue, walked downtown to 30th Street and made her way east to her office—where she stayed for a few minutes before deciding to head home.

"The adrenaline was so intense that I was uncontrollably shaking for two hours," she said.

Update (1:33): The Wall Street Journal has identified the victim as Steve Ercolino, 41, a vice president of sales at Hazan Imports, according to his LinkedIn page, and a 1992 graduate from SUNY Oneonta.

Mr. Ercolino

Update (1:39) Tony Malkin, whose family controls the Empire State Building, released a statement expressing his sympathies to the victims and noting that the violence didn't spread to the interior of the building: "This unfortunate event had nothing to do with the Empire State Building or with terrorism," he said. "The Empire State Building and its Observatories remained open throughout, and continue to be open and operating." The Observer has the complete statement.

Update (2:03): The Times points us to a t-shirt art business that appears to have been run by the shooter, Jeffrey Johnson, a graduate of Ringling School of Art & Design in Florida.

The crowd outside the Empire State Building

Update 2:20pm Jonah Wolf reports from the scene at the Empire State Building:By 10:30 AM, a crowd had gathered at the police line on 34th Street and Broadway, just east of Herald Square. Employees of businesses on that block—ASA College, Aéropostale, Forever 21—were told to show their ID or call their managers in order to cross the police line. Onlookers watched as police cars entered and exited the block.

Mark Lee, visiting from Essex, England, said he and his family "heard the sirens when we were going in" to the Empire State Building, but were still able to ride up to the 88th floor unaware of the shooting outside. "You can even go up to the 102nd floor," added his younger son, Robert, after leaving the police barricade.

"I'm glad I was late. I didn't have to dodge any bullets. God works in mysterious ways," said an employee of tour bus operators City Sights who declined to give his name.

Brandon Thorpe, who witnessed the shooting on the way to work at Penn Station, said, "You know that was retaliation. That means we have to get guns not just out of his hands but out of everybody's hands."

"I heard five gunshots," said Maria Almodovar Ramos, who was at work in the building on 10 West 33rd Street when the shooting occurred. "The shooter then ran toward Fifth Avenue." Seeing the police on his tail, the shooter apparently abandoned his grey Nissan and ran up Fifth Avenue toward 34th Street, where he was shot.

At approximately 12:50, a medical examiner van was seen leaving the crime scene.

Update (2:33): Raymond DiGiuseppe, chair in the Department of Psychology at St. John’s University, writes in on the shooter: “Jeffrey Johnson is too old for this aggressive act to be from the onset of psychotic disorder; and he’s too old to have unusual aggression typically found in younger men," Dr. DiGiuseppe said in an emailed statement. "Most professionals in our field think of aggression as impulsive, but we find that the three R’s revenge, resentment, and rumination can also play an important role in triggering aggression. Bringing the gun to his previous work place shows some degree of planning. Without knowing if he has a history of psychotic behavior, personality disorder, or neurological condition, if I had to predict, I would hypothesize that he has been ruminating about getting revenge and harboring feelings of resentment for the past year since he lost his job and that he would view this event as the result of being treated unfairly.”

UBS, which says it lost $356 million due to Nasdaq's technical difficulties, has said it will sue. Citadel, on the other hand, filed a letter with the SEC saying that Nasdaq's proposed remedies are fair.

In the wake of Knight Capital’s $440 million loss due to a rogue trading algorithm earlier this month, two exchange industry executives are talking up a fat finger provision, allowing regulators to roll back the tape and undo trades in exceptional cases.

The Malkins want to form a REIT to take the Empire State Building public. Some crotchety old New Yorkers are holding up the deal. Bloomberg's David M. Levitt goes long.

Angela Merkel and François Hollande are getting ready to play stern parents to Antonis Samaras as the Greek prime minister begins a trip through Berlin and Paris to ask the European powers for more time to reach austerity goals. Tough talk aside, Retuers suggests Europe may have little choice but to give Greece "a bit of air to breathe."

Will Greece leave the euro before it can be kicked out? Does it matter?

Amid the back-and-forth over Peter Thiel’s sale of 72 percent of his Facebook holdings, Bloomberg asks around, and reports such sudden divestiture to be unusual.

Best Buy founder Richard Schulze, who is working on a bid to take the electronics retailer private, and the Best Buy board are negotiating again over whether and under what conditions to allow Mr. Schulze to conduct due diligence on Best Buy's books.

The Fed's Open Market Committee hinted at further easing in meeting minutes released yesterday, and markets rallied.

It doesn't matter how loud you shout about the fiscal cliff (which, the Congressional Budget Office says could lead to a "significant recession" if lawmakers don't act). The news always seems to get buried.

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Mary L. Schapiro wanted to bring changes to the way money market funds are regulated, forcing the funds to hold cash against dark days, or let the funds fluctuate with the market. It's not going to happen, at least not at the moment.

Whale-slayer Boaz Weinstein is struggling to keep his head above water, reports The New York Post. Mr. Weinstein's Saba Capital iMaster Fund is only up 0.62 percent for the year, even after profiting in trades against the JPMorgan trader known as the London Whale.

Going up! (Cushman & Wakefield)

Is there a better way to enjoy the New York City skyline than from its highest point, atop the swiftly rising 1 World Trade Center? How about with a Shackburger and shake in hand?

According to The Times, Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group is among those vying to run the new observation deck on 1 World Trade Center's crown. Why?

Observation decks like the two at the Empire State Building have become so lucrative that the bidding for the three-level attraction on floors 100 through 102 drew bidders from as far as Canada and France, as well as a local restaurant owner.

Not every bidder is as upscale as the highbrow Mr. Meyer. They also include stadium favorites like Aramark (talk about nosebleed seats) and Legends Hospitality, which runs concessions at Yankees and Cowboys games. There is also Montparnasse 56 USA, the aforementioned French company, which runs this.

And then there is Tony Malkin, saluter of 1 World Trade and owner of the very popular Empire State Building and its two observation decks, which, The Times notes, generate some $60 million in profits a year.

Speaking of the top of the Empire State Building, The Times also has a nice story about the new LED lamps that were installed at the city's formerly tallest tower. These have been years in the works, and still will not be up and running for a few months, but the pics of the prismatic possibilities are still really cool.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Still No. 1 in our hearts. (ESB)

As of today, as you probably already know, 1 World Trade Center reached the historic height of 1,271 feet, eclipsing the Empire State Building and reclaiming its place as the tallest building in the city. In honor of that achievement, the tower will be lit up red, white and blue tonight. The Observer asked Tony Malkin, owner of the iconic tower, what he thought of being No. 2 again.

“The world's most famous office building, the ancestor of all super-tall towers, welcomes our newer, taller cousin to the skyline," Mr. Malkin responded in an email. "We've watched you grow, and now we salute you." He signed it as "Empire State Building."

It is a fitting tribute, if also unusual, considering Empire State Building staff were told not to discuss its "cousin's" ascent, according to New York magazine.

Meanwhile, Curbed had a rather amusing video of the history-making column rising to the top of 1 World Trade. It underscores both the banality and the eager emotions surrounding this milestone. We have waited so long for that column to be but into place, though it is still just a 26-foot-long piece of structural steel. This is just another construction site, but also the most important one in the world.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

The executive vice president of RFR Realty always wanted to be a musician, a drummer to be exact. But while going to St. Francis College, he asked his father, who worked in the real estate game, to help him find a day job until the record companies came banging at his door.

Gerard Schumm, REBNY Honoree. (Illustration by Joao Maio Pinto)

“I said, ‘Hey, Pop, can you get me something to tide me over?’” Mr. Schumm told The Commercial Observer during an interview last week.

In his paternal wisdom, Mr. Schumm’s father told him to him to pay attention: real estate might have something to offer.

“I’d like to believe that I would have made it as a professional musician,” he said. “But after almost 40 years in this great business I can honestly say that I’m not sure that a successful career in the music business would have been as rewarding as the time I have spent in the real estate industry. Maybe a little more fun, and probably a lot more trouble, but at this point in my life I really treasure the experiences and the friendships this industry has afforded me.”

It may not be a Grammy, but the Real Estate Board of New York’s “George M. Brooker Management Executive of the Year” award, bestowed on Mr. Schumm this year, should offer further validation that he made the right choice.

Last year, Mr. Schumm, while serving on REBNY’s management board of directors, helped tame a caustic labor dispute with the janitors union, 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which was threatening a strike that would affect 1,500 office buildings throughout the city—including 30 Rockefeller Center, the Empire State Building and the TimeWarner Center.

Mr. Schumm credited REBNY with finding a workable solution for everyone involved.

“They came up with a very reasonable and very fair settlement,” he said.

The self-effacing Mr. Schumm is reluctant to brag about his role in the resolution—or anything else.

“Those in the real estate industry who know me also know that I am not the type of person who looks to claim significant accomplishments for myself,” he said. “Everything we have achieved at RFR in the past year has been through a concerted team effort, whether it’s the extremely successful leasing program—425,000 square feet of leasing this year—the successful completion of major capital improvements and building renovations, or the restructuring of the leasing and management team, it’s all been via a team effort achieved under the direction of our COO, Gregg Popkin, and the tremendous support of our owners, Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs.”

He did, however, tout 26 happily married years to his wife, Dinah, as one of his proudest accomplishments.

“But even then I’ve got to give her 50 percent of the credit,” he said.

Mr. Schumm, who goes by Jerry, has spent the past 40 years with some of the top real estate players in the industry. He launched his career in 1972 at the Uris Organization, where he worked until Olympia and York acquired the company. He also served at the Galbreath Organization, Axion/Grubb & Ellis, Trizec Office Properties and Equity Office Properties, which he eventually left in order to shift careers and try his hand as an energy consultant.

He was out of the real estate game, working at Energy Spectrum until 2009, when he was pulled back into the business by RFR Realty after the company dangled an offer for its executive vice president position, a title that would put him in charge of property management, construction and leasing.

“It’s just a phenomenal industry,” he said. “You can do whatever you want in this business. There are just so many opportunities. It’s something new every day, and that’s what I love about it.”

Mr. Schumm said he’s hoping that the industry’s flexibility will sustain it through the changes that will inevitably come with new technology.

“As it has throughout history, advancements in technology will continue to impact the real estate industry,” he said. “As technology advances, the ability of a company to conduct its business improves. As the business environment improves, the economy should also improve.

“Typically, as the economy improves, the need for space changes and that ultimately impacts the real estate industry,” Mr. Schumm continued.

“The big unknown is whether or not advancements in technology will increase or decrease the need for space. I’m betting on the real estate markets and an increased demand for space as a result of technological advancements.”

But in the immediate future, the economy has caused the market to slow, Mr. Schumm said, and, as such, he forecasted that real estate would continue to follow the rest of the business world.

“The biggest issue facing the real estate industry today is the same issue that’s facing just about every other industry—the condition and the continued uncertainty of the economy,” he said. “While people want to be optimistic and believe that there are signs the economy is improving, I believe there is still an underlying level of nervousness that is impairing the growth of the real estate markets. Until the nervousness dissipates, the real estate industry will continue to move forward—slowly, at best.”

200 Madison Avenue. (Courtesy Property Shark)

The company, which is know for its Garanimals-brand line of children’s clothing, will expand by over 10,000 square feet in the deal. Garan will take the 575,000-square-foot building’s entire fourth floor for rents that average in the mid $40s per square foot over the life of the deal, which stretches for ten years.

Jim Saunders, an executive at the real estate services company Newmark Knight Frank, represented Garan in the lease with colleague Noel Flagg. Mr. Saunders said that he had spent nearly three years on the assignment, trolling the market for a space that would be suitable for Garan.

At the Empire State Building the firm was crammed into a single floor under 40,000 square feet in size. Though the company was eager to sprawl into a larger footprint, it preferred to move into a building that could accommodate all of its operations on one floor.

“When you are vertically integrated, it doesn’t matter what kind of a tenant you are, there are redundancies that force you to take more space and be less efficient,” Mr. Saunders said. “You have to have two lobbies or entrance ways, dual sets of copying machines and other equipment whereas if you have one floor you can consolidate.”

Besides the firm’s physical space requirements, it also preferred to stay in midtown in order to remain close to clients and convenient for its commuting workforce.

“We started looking three years ago and as we started putting together all the requirements, a single floor 50,000 square foot space in midtown at the right rental rates, the field of options really begins to taper down,” Mr. Saunders said.

Initially, even the fourth floor of 200 Madison Avenue didn’t seem like a sure fit Mr. Saunders said. The space was being offered for sublease by the apparel company Iconix Brand Group with a three year term, a relatively short length that wasn’t suitable for Garan, which was looking to lock down a longer deal. Sensing he could help negotiate a solution, Mr. Saunders said he approached Iconix and the building’s landlord, George Comfort & Sons, to see if a transaction could be arranged. In order to facilitate the deal George Comfort, a landlord that owns a number of office properties in the city including Worldwide Plaza, eventually reached an agreement to terminate Iconix’s lease so that Garan could step in and take the space long term in a deal directly with the landlord.

Mr. Saunders said Garan, which was acquired by Warren Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway in 2002, will demolish the space that Iconix used and build a new office installation.

According to market information, Garan received about $60 per square foot from the landlord to help cover the cost of constructing its new space.

DGeiger@Observer.com

SKANSKA TAKES OFFICE SPACE AT END OF LINE

Nov. 2--Skanska Railworks Joint Venure, a U.S. subsidiary of Swedish builder Skanska AB, will lease 16,000 square feet at 519 Eighth Avenue, The Commercial Observer has learned. The mega-builder has spearheaded construction on the Second Avenue subway project, the 7 subway line extension and the World Trade Center site.

The construction company also has a large office in the Empire State Building, but when it won the bid for systems and furnishings of the 7 line extension last month, they began the hunt for nearby office space.

“[Skanska] likes to locate as close as possible to major projects they are working on, and they lease for as long as they think the life of the project is,” said Barbara Raskob, of the Kaufman Organization, who represented the landlord in the deal with Steven Kaufman.

The lease is for five years, with a cancellation option after three. Asking rent was in the mid-$30s per square foot for the entire 14^th floor.

This deal brings 519 Eighth Avenue to 100 percent occupancy.

The building will be and ideal, if rather temporary, home for the company—the lobby was renovated about four years ago and the landlord is considering adding a roof deck.

Ted Spiegel of Spiegel Real Estate represented the tenant in the transaction.--Guelda Voien