Commercial Observer | The New York Observer

Busy Bean Counters Balloon at 1411 Broadway

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:26:07 -0500

1411 Broadway

Nothing goes better with accountants than mid-priced fashion. Now EisnerLubin LLP will stride into the home of Jones Apparel Group and LeviStraussCo.

The cautious number crunchers will expand by 50 percent with the move from their current home at 444 Madison Avenue. But with plenty of head-scratching deals being done, along with tax season on the way, they'll likely need the 19,000 square feet.

"Our client base...

Financial Tech Firm Stretches in Durst’s 675 Third for 10 Years

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:28:31 -0500

675 Third Avenue

SS&C Technologies has already proven it can gobble up smaller companies; now it turns out it's got a similar appetite for space.

The financial technology firm, which has acquired several companies in the last year, including TD Ameritrade last month, has now taken 26,000 square feet of extra legroom at 675 Third Avenue. The deal more than doubles its space in the building to 51,000 square feet.

...

Gobble, Gobble! SL Green Inks 142,000 Feet in Deals

Tue, 23 Nov 2010 18:14:31 -0500

220 East 42nd Street

While most of the city rolls over from its Thanksgiving feast, SL Green is sprinting to the year's end, with 142,000 square feet of deals signed in various buildings in one month.

The landlord's biggest thanks goes to the U.N. Development Programme, which has inked a 42,931-square-foot lease for the entire 20th, 21st and 23rd floors at 220 East 42nd Street.

The benevolent bureaucrats may...

Good News for the Fellas? Harry Winston Expands HQ

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:41:57 -0500

1330 Sixth Avenue

With the holidays coming, the twinkle in many a young woman's eye will soon be on her finger. Just in time, Harry Winston has doubled its corporate headquarters in the Pearson Building.

The jeweler has been nestled at 1330 Sixth Avenue since 2004, but now it will occupy 20,800 square feet on the entire 33rd and 34th floors. Asking rents in the building when the deal was struck in...

The Brooklyn Kid Who Done Good: Grubb & Ellis’ Corporate Services Chief Helps Connect Firms and Locations

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:25:06 -0500

"Whenever I bounce from meeting to meeting in Manhattan I tend to walk by my favorite manholes--to this day. And my favorite has always been my last one."

Marty Cottingham grew up among the bright row houses of Windsor Terrace, drinking at neighborhood fixture Farrell's, where his uncles bartended, and working at the little deli next door before it became an Italian restaurant.

It was as a teenager in the Brooklyn neighborhood...

Gary Rosenberg Has a Feeling He’s Been Here Before

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:21:24 -0500

Since founding the law firm Rosenberg & Estis, Gary Rosenberg has hurdled from representing the landlords of rent-controlled outer-borough apartment buildings to the city's most successful developers, most notably the Durst Organization, which he has worked with since the 1970s. The 60-year-old Bronx native sat down last week to discuss the considerably smooth assembly of One Bryant Park, his current role at One World Trade Center and how his work as one of New...

Can Walgreens Cure Harlem's Scurvy?

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:41:54 -0500

The marketplace bears some of the responsibility for turning Harlem into a barren wasteland of chips and cheap takeout. Could it also save it?

Walgreens, which along with many big chains has been accused of failing to sell decent produce and turning many areas of Manhattan into so-called "culinary deserts," has launched a fresh food section as a pilot project, with 10 locations around Chicago selected based on their lack of nutritional offerings.

Duane Reade has been...

3 Columbus Circle: Luxurious or Lipstick on a Pig?

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:28:20 -0500

Columbus Circle has been the victim of bad architecture for decades, since Robert Moses built the Coliseum on its western flank in the 1950s, a building derided at the time as "utterly pedestrian," among other epithets. It has since been replaced by the far nicer though not always beloved Time Warner Center. Just across Broadway is the banal Trump International.

Then there was 2 Columbus Circle, the Edward Durrell Stone-designed museum for eccentric heir Huntington...

Just Like the Real Thing, Almost No One Will Like Atlantic Yards Play

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:38:09 -0500

Could anyone have hoped to make an interesting play out of Atlantic Yards? On the one hand, it seems to have all the drama and excitement necessary: heroes and villains, race and class issues, a beautiful Brooklyn setting. On the other hand: internminable lawsuits and ULURP.

Fort Greene-based theater company The Civilians appears to have gone with the latter route in its new show, "In the Footprint," which even includes a song about the city's...

If It Quacks Like a Lame Duck …

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 11:01:55 -0500

Expectations are low for the final weeks of the 111th Congress, which convened yesterday for the first time since before the midterm elections. It is unclear how much legislative business will be brought to closure given the entrenched positions of the parties.

For Republicans, there is an advantage in delaying the most legislatively contentious battles until after the new year, when they take control of the House and the breadth of committee chairmanships....

About That Third Quarter

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:57:03 -0500

One of the market segments we always pay close attention to in New York City is the multifamily building sales market. Rent-regulated properties are always in high demand, as they possess the greatest amount of upside given the artificially low rents that regulation creates. Given their limited downside, these properties are always the easiest upon which to obtain financing. Additionally, there are more multifamily properties in New York City than any other product type....

They Can't Even Afford a Second Manhattan Station, But Now the 7 Train Will Stop in Secaucus?

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 19:34:34 -0500

Westward, ho... after all!

In the confusion following the disappearance of the ARC Tunnel last month, the biggest question seemed to be what would happen to the $3 billion the federal government had set aside for the trans-Hudson train tunnel, by certain measures the largest transportation project ever undertaken. Local politicians, including Mayor Bloomberg as well as the outgoing and incoming governors of New York, were desperate to keep the money in the metro area...

Pyramids? Dumbo Says Not In My Backyard

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:17:29 -0500

As architectural gems go, pyramids are great. So are historical open-air warehouses. What's less clear is whether the two really belong together.

The battle between Prospect Heights-based dance troop LAVA and performance group St. Ann's regarding who will take over Dumbo's hallowed, hollowed-out Tobacco Warehouse has grown heated, according to Curbed. Both groups want to keep the space uncovered, but the similarities pretty much end there.

St. Ann's proposes spiffing up the 19th century warehouse into...

Israeli Real Estate Bubble? It's a Tale of Two Cities (At Least)

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:51:29 -0500

There has been much talk lately about the potential of a dangerous real estate bubble in Israel's cities.

The Observer's Laura Kusisto asked last week if Israel -- where foreign buyers of luxury properties have not only rapidly and substantially driven up the cost of housing, but have created a fragile market -- may compare to Dubai's and to the US, whose real estate crashes were felt around the world.

Meanwhile, Bank of Israel...

Hive Mind: Morris Adjmi Loves His Alien Additions

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:24:37 -0500

Yesterday was indeed a busy one at the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Not only were Paul Rudolph and Robert De Niro there, but so was Morris Adjmi, defending yet another wild addition to one of the city's historic buildings.

Last week it was that torquing High Line neighbor at 837 Washington Street, which the commissioners turned down, saying they liked the design but thought it was too big. The same thing happened last year on another...