By Daniel Edward Rosen 2/14/12 12:30pm

Lease of the Week

622 Broadway.

Take-Two Interactive Throws Another Coin in the Slot at 622 Broadway

When Take-Two Interactive, the video game giants behind such popular and violently lurid titles as Grand Theft Auto and  Max Payne, had a few years remaining on its lease at 622 Broadway, the landlord, Yuco Management, found itself in a curious position.

Should Yuco Management aggressively market the 69,000 square feet of space Take-Two had called its own since 2002, thereby losing its anchor tenant? Or should it do anything it could to keep Take-Two, which had in some ways branded 622 Broadway as a distinctly hip and colorful office building, especially with its endless parade of behooded video game designers and executives?

“It’s the unique building where people don’t wear suits and ties and ride bicycles to work with their dogs,” said William Cohen, an executive vice president and principal at Newmark Knight Frank, who was hired alongside colleague Mark Weiss by Yuco Management to help decide the next best move. “I’m not kidding,” Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 1/17/12 10:30am

Commercial Observer

Bernard Resnick, Sheldon Silver and Steven Spinola, circa 1996.

Reeling in the Years With the Real Estate Board of New York: In their own words, brokers and owners tell the tale of REBNY’s past half century

Since it started with a roll call of 27 members in 1896 with the goal of “facilitating transactions in real estate,” the Real Estate Board of New York has indisputably been the city’s most influential real estate organization, with its annual gala being to brokers what the Vanity Fair Oscar party is for Hollywood: If you’re there, it means you’re somebody.

Sure, some may lovingly write it off as a veritable men’s club (men are thought to outnumber women five to one), chide it as “The Liar’s Ball” (each year is a broker’s best year, no matter how wretched the marketplace) and speak ill of the food (nearly everyone avoids the chicken and filet mignon).

But the REBNY gala is as essential to a real estate person’s reputation and status as the buildings and bricks he works with. A dozen of the city’s most legendary players spoke to The Commercial Observer about the blurry nights and boom years that helped make the event what it is today.
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By Jotham Sederstrom 11/01/11 10:50am

the sit-down

Peter Riguardi and Jones Lang LaSalle will move to 330 Madison Avenue.

Jones Lang LaSalle's Tristate President on Big Poaches and Big Moves

Since joining Jones Lang LaSalle in 2002 as president of New York operations, Peter Riguardi has spearheaded a rapid expansion drive that has culminated in the hiring of no fewer than 100 new brokers over the past nine years. Mr. Riguardi, 50, spoke to The Commercial Observer last week about that ambitious hiring phase, the firm’s leasing assignment at 85 Broad Street and, for the first time, his plans to move the firm to 330 Madison Avenue.

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By Dana Rubinstein 9/21/09 2:12pm

Triple Threat

When’s the leasing market going to return, or has it returned already?

Mr. Siegel: The leasing market has shown strong indications in Midtown of returning to good health. It appears that people have determined that the rents have bottomed out and they want to take advantage of the bargains that are out there. June, Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 10/08/08 2:32pm

CBRE to Commercial Real Estate Industry: Stop Panicking!

Calm down! That was the message CB Richard Ellis honchos impressed upon reporters at this morning’s end-of-third-quarter breakfast, at which the brokerage released a "Supply & Demand Special Report."

"Everybody’s knee-jerk reaction this month has been wrong," said Simon Wasserberger, senior vice president of CBRE’s New York tri-state region consulting group, referring to predictions that Read More

By Blair Golson 2/03/03 12:00am

The Princely Palazzo

Now that Stephen Siegel, the chairman and chief executive of Insignia/ESG, is preparing to move into the Park Avenue townhouse once sought by his boss, Andrew Farkas, he’s put his own place on the market for significantly less. An Insignia spokesman downplayed a New York Post report of a bidding war. “Stephen and Andrew were Read More