jones lang lasalle | Observer

By Daniel Geiger 1/30/12 8:00am

Queens District Attorney to Relocate

The Queens District Attorney’s Office is considering a large lease in Forest Hills, Queens in offices that used to be occupied by the major airline JetBlue, several sources told The Commercial Observer.

The office of the Queen’s DA, Richard Brown, is in talks to lease approximately 180,000 square feet at Forest Hills Tower, space that was formerly leased by JetBlue, which decided last year to relocate from the 500,000-square-foot building to Long Island City. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 1:00pm

Lease of the Week

Endurance Ensures 750 Third

Endurance Reinsurance needed more office space. But growing wasn’t going to be as easy as just tacking a few new floors onto its existing footprint.

The firm had split its operations between two closely located buildings on Third Avenue, 750 and 767 Third Avenue. A quick perusal of the former revealed that only a tantalizing scrap on the building’s 10th floor was available. Alone, it wasn’t going to cut it. Endurance, a roughly 60,000-square-foot tenant at the time, was looking to grow by about 50 percent or more. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 11:08am

Postings

1173 REBNY 116th Annual Banquet, 1.19.12

Walking the REBNY Ballroom: Hungry Brokers, Angry Lapidus

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

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

Lease of the Week

“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 1/05/12 9:30am

Price Escalations

In Pre-Recession Twist, Solow Eyes $200-Per-Foot at 9 West 57th Street

Manhattan hasn’t seen too many $200-per-square-foot commercial rental offerings since the recession brought rates crashing down.

But Sheldon Solow, the enigmatic and private owner of 9 West 57th Street, plans to lease some of his best office space in that prized trophy tower at those sky-high, pre-recession rents. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 1/03/12 3:00pm

power broker

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 Edward Rosen 12/29/11 9:00am

lease beat

Deutsche Bank Takes 50K in Brooklyn

Deutsche Bank AG will be opening its first office in Downtown Brooklyn after it agreed to take 50,000 square feet at the JPMorgan Chase-owned 4 MetroTech Center, The Commercial Observer has learned. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 12/27/11 11:20am

lease beat

Guggenheim Partners Seals Deal at 330 Madison Avenue

Guggenheim Partners, an investment firm that grew from administering the vast private wealth of the Guggenheim family in the early 1900s to a multifaceted financial firm, has signed a large lease at 330 Madison Avenue for its New York headquarters, sources revealed.

The deal comes one month after The Commercial Observer first reported that Guggenheim was looking to take space at the building in November. Read More

By Dan Geiger 12/15/11 9:30am

lease beat

EXCLUSIVE: Health Care Provider Healthfirst Expands By 60,000 Feet

Healthfirst is expanding by roughly 60,000 square feet at 100 Church Street.

The company, a healthcare provider, already occupies about 170,000 square feet at the property, space it took last year in a move to relocate and consolidate its operations in the city. Read More

By Dan Geiger 11/25/11 9:00am

The Lease Beat

EXCLUSIVE: New Hedge Signs 9,000 SF–And it Hasn’t Even Launched Yet.

Falcon Edge Capital, a soon to be launched hedge fund, is taking almost 9,000 square feet at the high-end office building 660 Madison Avenue.

The firm, which will begin operations in 2012 according to reports, was formed by celebrated young investment professionals Rick Gerson, formerly of the major firm Blue Ridge and Navroz Udwadia or the well known investment company Eton Park Capital Management. Read More

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