By Carl Gaines 2/29/12 2:41pm

Investment Sales

Illustration by Peter Lettre.

Medium Cool: Investment Sales Volume Spiked in 2011, but Future’s Still Cloudy

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

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 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 Dana Rubinstein 10/27/09 11:46am

Newmark Knight Frank Pounds Its Chest

Jimmy Kuhn, president of brokerage Newmark Knight Frank, was in a chipper mood on Monday morning. And who could blame him? New York commercial real estate may be about as cadaverous a field as New York media, but Newmark has been winning some notable battles in the ceaseless blood feud between city brokerages.

Newmark has Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 8/11/09 3:13pm

Bearish Before It Was Cool

Location: Do you ever get bored waiting for the market to recover?
Mr. Kuhn: God, this is great! I don’t get bored waiting for the market to recover. I go look for opportunities! This is the greatest mining time we’ve had in the last 10 years. … And if you’re a tenant-rep broker, and Read More