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 2/27/12 9:30am

power broker

Robert-Knakal

By the Numbers: Robert Knakal and the Statistics Behind his Success

Robert Knakal has long had a simple philosophy about selling real estate.

The way he sees it, there are approximately a million buildings in the city, and the broker that gets to sell any one among the multitude that will hit the auctioning block at a given moment is, sometimes, simply the person who happens to pitch their services to the right seller at the right time. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 2/21/12 9:00am

Investment Sales

77 Commercial Street. (Courtesy Property Shark)

Chetrit Eyes 77 Commercial Street

Joe Chetrit is leading a partnership of investors in the acquisition of 77 Commercial Street, a development parcel in Greenpoint, Brooklyn that can accommodate about 270,000 square feet of residential development.

It’s not clear what Mr. Chetrit has negotiated to pay in the deal, but the property was being marketed by a Massey Knakal team led by the company’s chairman, Robert Knakal, that sources said was aiming to net a purchase price in the high $20 millions. Read More

By Daniel Geiger 2/16/12 4:45pm

Investment Sales

640 Broadway

640 Broadway sells for $32.5 million

 640 Broadway has sold for $32.5 million.

According to Bob Knakal, chairman of the brokerage company Massey Knakal who handled the sale with colleague James Nelson, the roughly 63,000 square foot Soho building was purchased by a first time Manhattan buyer in partnership with an institutional investor. Mr. Knakal, a prolific broker of commercial and multifamily buildings in the city, said he could not disclose the identity of the joint venture because they were his clients and asked him to remain anonymous. Read More

By Jotham Sederstrom 1/31/12 2:37pm

The Plan

The Plan: 2758 Broadway

When Meridiana, a fixture on the Upper West Side, shuttered after nearly two decades, Massey Knakal broker David Chkheidze exposed the Broadway storefront to what rapidly grew into a formidable crowd of more than a hundred would-be retail tenants, despite what he candidly described as a space in disrepair. After tours from both local and Read More

By Daniel Geiger 1/24/12 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 1/18/12 12:14pm

2012 Outlook

Robert Knakal, Back in the Day.

Low Interest Rates, Capital Gains Spike, Could Spur Sales: Massey Knakal

Massey Knakal executives predict that the sales market for office buildings and apartment properties will pick up considerably in 2012, due in large part to a combination of record low interest rates and widespread expectations that the capital gains tax rate will rise next year.

“We’re going to see a natural regression in 2012 back to the norms,” said Robert Knakal, Massey Knakal’s chairman, noting that the volume of properties sold in the city has been below the historical average since the recession and is likely to bounce back. “The potential increase in capital gains that could take place in 2013 [is a big driver]. We saw a significant spike in sales volume in 2010 for the very same reason.” Read More

By Daniel Geiger 1/06/12 11:45am

lease beat

140 William Street (photo courtesy of Property Shark)

Pace Dances Into 140 William Street

Pace University has reached an agreement to move into 140 William Street, taking the entire 50,000 square foot building for its dance and visual arts programs, The Commercial Observer has learned.

The school will be relocating from its current space at 280 Broadway, said David Falk, president of Newmark Knight Frank who represented Pace in the deal. Read More