Real Estate | The New York Observer

11 Questions

Meet the Neighbors! Jay Heydt Walks Fast, Talks Faster

By The Editors | March 4, 2011 | 6:37 pm

Welcome to the latest installment of our ongoing interview series, Meet the Neighbors! Jay Heydt has done more than 10,000 transactions in his decade in the real estate game, all without taking shortcuts--that is his motto, "No shortcuts." This earned him top listing status in 2008 and 2009, and he has built relationships with more than 300 buildings over the years. When he is not working, commuting or spending time with his family, Jay likes to give his time to... MORE»

lease beat

Insurance Law Firm Splits for Mack-Cali's 125 Broad

By Laura Kusisto | March 4, 2011 | 2:53 pm

It's been lonely downtown for Sullivan & Cromwell, with nary another major law firm in sight. Finally, the stuffy concern will get some company through a deal at 125 Broad... MORE»

Manhattan Transfers

Russia's Gambling Man Belotserkovsky Loses Bet on Plaza

By Matt Chaban | March 4, 2011 | 2:04 pm

As Mikhail Prokhorov and a cadre of globetrotting countrymen continue to expand their presence in the city, one of their comrades is shedding some of his, and at a considerable loss. In the summer of 2007, Boris Belotserkovsky, the boss of Russia's one-armed bandits, bought a sizable one-bedroom on the 13th floor of the recently converted Plaza for $5.1 million. Now, the 1,100-square-foot jewelbox on the north side of the luxurious landmark has just sold for $4.43... MORE»

Like you can see right through this one.

Big Real Estate

In Hines Sight: Morgan Stanley Hub Up for Sale

By Laura Kusisto | March 4, 2011 | 1:06 pm

Hines Interests is selling its imposing 36-story, hexagon-topped tower at Seventh Avenue and 48th Street, multiple sources told The Observer. The Texas-based real estate investment firm, with $22.9 billion in assets worldwide, bought the 600,000-square-foot midtown prize in partnership with General Motors in 2000. The sale price was $150 million, or $260 a square... MORE»

House Porn

It's Free to Look: One Prime Number in Tribeca

By Caitlin Nolan | March 4, 2011 | 12:33 pm

On the market for the first time since 1998, this landmarked townhouse in the federal style is so money it doesn't even know it! According to The AIA Guide to New York, the Tabak Is Tribeca listing once... MORE»

Inn Demand

Developers of Cooper Square Hotel Check Out

By Matt Coyne | March 4, 2011 | 12:14 pm

One of the city's more... interesting... structures, the Cooper Square Hotel in the East Village is now property of Westport Capital Partners, a firm specializing in "opportunistic and distressed real estate investments" as part of a $70.9 million debt restructuring... MORE»

Elsewhere

On the Market: Bike Licensing Bill Nixed; Free Squatter Classes; 34th Street Plan Still Sinister?

By Matt Chaban | March 4, 2011 | 10:05 am

Gowanus hotel rivalry blooms while new music spot opens [BK Paper, Brownstoner] Businessweek says Upper East Side has city's most expensive block... MORE»

Road Rage

Sadik-Khan Kowtows to Critics, or Is 34th Street Just a Bait-and-Switch?

By Matt Chaban | March 3, 2011 | 7:46 pm

In her four years atop the city's Department of Transportation, Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan has masterminded a re-engineering of the city's streets that not so long ago would have been impossible. Bike lanes proliferate, parking spaces have been transformed into cafes, and Broadway, the most famous road in the world, has been almost entirely closed to cars from Columbus Circle to Union Square.... MORE»

Good things happen when associates don't get $160K right off.

lease beat

Law Firm Signs at Silverstein's Sixth Avenue Digs

By Laura Kusisto | March 3, 2011 | 6:17 pm

Not long ago Drinker, Biddle and Reath made a bold move to pay its first-year associates smaller salaries so the firm could offer better training for them. The young'uns seem to have flourished, as the Philadelphia-based law firm is moving into bigger space at Silverstein Properties' 1177 Sixth... MORE»

Big Real Estate

Parking Garage for Sale! Act Now!

By Jotham Sederstrom | March 3, 2011 | 2:21 pm

If New Yorkers know anything it's that finding a parking spot is crucial. And so, when a commercial broker offers the master leases for two retail units on Manhattan's bustling Third Avenue, it almost goes without saying that a parking garage will be in the... MORE»

building stories

Billy Macklowe Taps Konsker and the Gang at 636 A of A

By Jotham Sederstrom | March 3, 2011 | 1:59 pm

Only two months after their defection from Cushman & Wakefield, the powerhouse brokerage team at Jones Lang LaSalle led by Mitchell Konsker announced this week that they had snagged leasing duties for William Macklowe's 636 Avenue of the Americas office... MORE»

People who live in LUX houses actually prefer limestone.

Manhattan Transfers

Whose Townhouse Is It Anyway?

By Matt Chaban | March 3, 2011 | 1:19 pm

Last week, former banker, current art dealer and all-around nice, rich guy Robert Mnuchin bought a gorgeously renovated townhouse at 14 East 95th Street for $14.25 million. But is the new home for him or his daughter, Valerie Mnuchin... MORE»

lease beat

Law Firm Steptoeing Into 1114 Sixth

By Laura Kusisto | March 3, 2011 | 12:59 pm

Steptoe & Johnson, the international law firm Qadaffi wishes he could get to represent him, is relocating its New York City office to the Grace Building. The firm, which is currently spread across three floors at 750 Seventh Avenue, has signed a long-term lease for 31,000 square feet, or the entire 35th floor, of the oddly curved building at 1114 Sixth Avenue, on the edge of Bryant... MORE»

House Porn

It's Free to Look: Thanks, Pop-Pop!

By Matt Coyne | March 3, 2011 | 12:21 pm

For the modest sum of $3 million you can live in the sort of luxury J.P. Morgan originally intended for his kin in Murray... MORE»

concrete thoughts

Wal-Mart and the Lesson of Betamax

By Robert Knakal | March 3, 2011 | 10:50 am

The other day, I was walking around the city taking photographs of buildings for a marketing brochure I am putting together. I was using my old Polaroid Land Camera--you know, the one where the photograph slides out of the front of the camera and develops right before your very eyes. As I was standing in the street taking the photos, I nearly got run down by a horse and buggy that was racing past me up Madison Avenue. The buggy was traveling at a speed much faster than allowed by law, so I pulled my cell phone out of my backpack to notify the police.... MORE»

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